This is one of those films that if it didn't star Gael Garcia Bernal then there is absolutely no chance it would ever have made it into British multiplexes. That is not to say that it has got some decent distribution is an inherently bad thing, all too often very commercial foreign language fare (like this) gets overlooked as for some the prospect of watching a film with subtitles necessitates an intellectual subject matter. Not so, and sometimes nice little films like this find their way through.
Rudo y Cursi is a reunion of Bernal and Diego Luna from one of Mexico's most famous exports of the last decade, Alfonso Cuaron's Y tu mama tambien, and this film is directed by the co-writer of that film: Cuaron's brother Carlos. It follows two half-brothers who are spotted by a wandering football talent scout (who narrates the film) and plucked from obscurity and start playing for different professional teams.
There aren't too many surprises along the way, this is very familiar stuff with more than a few cliches, but the charm of both actors carry them through and the film with them. As a piece of filmmaking it is extremely solid, impressively so. Never anything too showy, it doesn't show the actors doing too much on the pitch the way Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas did in last year's Linha de Passe and the family dramas at the centre of this are much more lightweight than in that film but if anything it works much better because of it.
There are some nice supporting turns, Guillermo Francella as the scout-come-agent is very amusing and steals the show and Bernal's music video is utterly hilarious. So a very simple little film which does exactly what it says on the tin, for football fans, fans of the people involved, or just if you fancy seeing Bernal's rear end on multiple occasions, then it's worth checking out.