In a melodramatic style, the comedy Instructions Not Included explores Acapulco’s resident playboy, Valentin, unexpectedly taking up fatherhood when a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep.
Written by Guillermo Rios and Leticia Lopez Margalli, there are more plot twists than seem achievable. Valentin sets off on foot from Acapulco to LA to find the baby’s mother, where he ends up finding a new job as a stuntman and a home for himself and his newfound daughter Maggie. For six years he raises Maggie in a highly imaginative and unusual fashion, which is later brought against him. It seems like our immature playboy really grown up, making sacrifices to secure custody when her biological mother played by Jessica Lindsay comes to take her away.
One of the highlights is the sparkling performance by Loreta Peralta as Maggie who is adorable as a child revelling in her child’s-wonderland apartment and matching PJs with Dad, or unabashedly missing the mother she hasn’t seen since she was a ten-month-old baby.
Director Eugenio Derbez also plays the role of Valentin and would have benefited from a little more distance from his material, but deftly handles a range of comedic styles.
The music is at times mawkishly sentimental and like the movie is stretched in parts. But sentimental does well in Mexico with this movie having three million admissions, and also rating as the top grossing Spanish speaking movie of all time at the US box office.
This is a fun film that explores the playboy lifestyle, the modern family dynamic, how to be a good parent, and the meaning of life. The story arc travels a bit too far and would have been far better to have concentrated on a few of the strands it attempts to cover. The combined efforts of an excellent cast means that the movie holds its own, despite its drawbacks. As part of the national Spanish Film Festival, this film ultimately pulls at the heartstrings.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Instructions Not Included
Director: Eugenio Derbez
Spain/Mexico 2015
122 mins Spanish and English with English Subtitles
Spanish Film Festival
http://www.spanishfilmfestival.com/
21 April – 20 May 2015
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