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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Rudo y Cursi’ follows journey to, fall from glory

Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal play half-brothers in “Rudo y Cursi.”  movieweb.com (movieweb.com / The Spokesman-Review)
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By day, the brothers cut and tote fruit at the local banana plantation. Each night, Tato (Diego Luna) bikes home to his wife and growing family of ninos while the single and happy-go-lucky Beto (Gael Garcia Bernal) drinks cerveza, plays his accordion and sings with passion if not exactly skill.

But the brothers – half-brothers, really – have their dreams. Beto wants a singing contract. And even though he’s a little too old to cling to delusions of sports glory, Tato longs for a shot at soccer stardom.

They both achieve their dreams and see them turn into nightmares in the serio-comic soccer soap opera “Rudo y Cursi.”

It’s a playful Spanish-language riff on the standard-issue sports drama: that journey from hunger to glory and fame, to drugs, loose women and gambling that is a familiar sports movie arc in any language.

Beto only wants that music deal. But when the talent scout Batuta (Guillermo Francella) sees him play “the beautiful game” he envisions a different sort of stardom.

Batuta has to promise a record deal to motivate Beto’s soccer play. Before you know it, the kid’s the showboating star of a Mexico City squad, a guy whose cornball dance after each goal wins him the nickname “Cursi” (corny, vulgar).

Cursi wrangles Tato a shot as a goalie with another team. And the two become the toast of Mexican soccer.

That’s when Tato’s nickname “Rudo” (rough) starts to stick when he adds a drug problem to his gambling addiction, and when Cursi meets the beautiful people he once could only worship on TV.

Writer-director Carlos Cuaron, younger brother of Alfonso Cuaron, wrote the film that made Luna and Bernal famous, “Y tu Mamá También” (which was directed by Alfonso).

The younger Cuaron has made a scruffy, conventional and predictable film, one whose ambitions and gimmicks seem obvious. There’s little conflict in it other than comical sibling rivalry until the third act when the brothers’ dreams turn sour.

But Bernal and Luna have great sibling comic chemistry. And having the agent Batuta narrate this tale of the Mexican national obsession (with bribed coaches, fixed games, the works) lends enough whimsy to “Rudo y Cursi” to make even the corn go down easy.