Tato and Beto are Mexican half-brothers, Tato a high-scoring forward nicknamed Cursi and Beto a formidable goalkeeper nicknamed Rudo. The nicknames roughly translate as Corny and Tough, respectively, and they are, very obviously, soccer stars in a movie named after both of them, "Rudo y Cursi."
Carlos Cuaron wrote and directed this bright, high-spirited film, but like so many sports films, it ends with a game, and given the relationship between the men, there’s a lot of conflict along the way. Both are fine athletes, come from small towns, fall under the spell of a fast-talking, slow-delivering agent named Batuta (good work by Guillermo Francella), and end up in Mexico City, where they are severely tested by off-field possibilities, just like American kids who excel in sports.
Gael Garcia Bernal is Tato, or Cursi, but he’d rather be a singer, something for which he has almost no talent. But as an athlete, he gets a chance, and he also gets a girl, a sultry TV commercial face who stays with him on the high ride but goes off in other directions as soon as things change. Some of the scenes with Bernal and Jessica Mas, as the girl, get very heated; others get very funny as when he continues to make his "theme song" out of "I Want You to Want Me." Sometimes audiences deserve a little more subtlety.
Diego Luna, as Beto, or Rudo, likes to gamble, claims he has an unbeatable system, blames it when things go wrong and the bookmakers close in.
It’s easy to see how the plot will fly, and while there are bright, brisk moments along the way, and a tuneful score, and adequate work by Bernal and Luna, there’s no real story to keep one’s attention very long.
At the Plaza Frontenac.
-Joe