Casa de mi Padre

We've all seen a bunch of films starring Will Ferrell, and they typically are similar in their writing, i.e. Ferrell's physical presence. But when I had heard of "Casa de mi Padre", I felt that this project was a bit different than his usual fare. As with "Stranger Than Fiction", this appeared to be, at least, different, and I was right.

Armando Alvarez (Will Ferrell) has lived and worked on his father's ranch in Mexico his entire life. As the ranch encounters financial problems, Armando's younger brother Raul (Diego Luna) shows up with his new fiance, Sonia (Genesis Rodriguez). It seems that Raul's success as an international businessman means that the ranch's troubles are over as he pledges to settle all debts his father Miguel Ernesto (Pedro Armendariz Jr.) has incurred.
As Armando has a rocky start in getting to know Sonia, he then falls for her. And as Raul's business dealings turn out to be less than legit, all hell breaks loose as they find themselves in a war with Mexico's most feared and notorious drug lord, the mighty Onza (Gael Garcia Bernal).

Others to round out the cast are Adrian Martinez as Manuel and Efren Ramirez as Esteban, Armando's ranch hands and friends, Manuel Urrego as Officer Blancardo, Nick Offerman as DEA Agent Parker and Jerry Collins as DEA Agent #2.

This project was directed by Matt Piedmont ("The Joe Buck Show" (TV movie) '08) and it was written by Andrew Steele ("The Ladies Man" 2000). Both of these guys have had extensive Saturday Night Live experience which is where Ferrell came from originally, hence the collaboration. I'm sure these guys will collaborate again in the future, because this was an interesting and bold attempt.

Speaking of interesting, what really made this anything palatable was the fact it was totally in Spanish, even Ferrell's performance. For not being Hispanic, Ferrell did an incredible job. His dialect was amazing. I'm not usually a Ferrell fan, but after seeing this, I yearn for him to do other different roles so as to showcase his ability to act in something that isn't just physical comedy. This was a much more subtle, satirical type of comedy which made it more funny. It did have some problems in that the writing kind of meandered in places, but believe me, I find this a lot more refreshing than his usual shtick.

Out of 4 stars: 2.5                      Rated: R                        84min.