Carlos Cuaron probably thought he had struck gold when, for his debut feature, he cast Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna and scored Guillermo del Toro, Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu and Alfonso Cuaron (his brother) as producers. But the writer of Y Tu Mama Tambien probably couldn't afford to evoke memories of that earlier film, which puts far too much pressure on this slight, sweet story..
Like the 2001 sex romp that made Bernal and Luna stars, Rudo y Cursi mixes light and dark moments, gets into the intimate details of a fraught relationship between two men, and packs in lots of local color from rural Mexico. But the story, about brothers Beto "Rudo" (Luna) and and Tato "Cursi" (Garcia Bernal) and their misadventures in the soccer major leagues, slips way too often into heavy-handed metaphors and easy narrative tricks. After getting plucked from their rural soccer league by a smooth-talking agent, Rudo and Cursi go through fairly typical rises and falls in their newfound fame. Rudo, separated from his wife and family or the first time, slips into an expensive gambling habit that eventually leads to cocaine. Cursi, who somehow sees soccer as his route to fame as a singer, falls for a money-grubbing TV personality who clearly loves the Hummer he buys her more then she loves him.
There's not much soccer in the movie at all, which Cuaron intends to help distance his movie from a typical sports film, but winds up feeling coy and unsatisfying. Rudo and Cursi's relationship makes up a tender, believable heart for the film, but Bernal and Luna could easily have pulled that off while also scoring a few more goals. And anyway, the movie ends the way all sports movies about people on opposite teams must, with the final climactic game and the final climactic goal that could change everything. It's a trope that works well in movies that embrace it, but because Rudo y Cursi is headed in a different direction so much of the time, here it seems to come out of nowhere.
The cheesy voiceover narration from Guillermo Francella as the slick agent Baton goes from endearingly silly to irritating back to endearing again, much as Rudo and Cursi maintain their puppyish charm while acting like buffoons. All this plus some nicely energetic direction helps Rudo y Cursi stay entertaining the whole way through, but the showmanship isn't enough to make the movie feel as meaningful as it's aiming to be. As a first effort, Rudo y Cursi presents a lot of promise for what the younger Cuaron may be as a filmmaker. But overall its satisfactions are outweighed by the drawbacks.
