You might not know the name Eugenio Derbez, but after watching Instructions Not Included, the world will be well aware of this gifted Mexican superstar who not only produces and directs the film, but also delivers a great performance as a father who will go to the end of the world to shower his daughter with love and happiness.
Undoubtedly, the Mexican comedian with the biggest audience, most popularity and influence in today's Mexican TV, producer, director and star of numerous TV shows, Derbez has won over the main Spanish-speaking entertainment markets, thanks to his endless ingenuity to create unforgettable characters and to his fresh, quick and surprising conception of comedy as his genre. From his first forays into Mexican television, Derbez's name stood as a brand of significant resonance with the public. All this experience as creator and actor serves him as a stepping stone in his first movie as director.
Instructions Not Included shows his strength and his talent as a creator in the field of cinema and audio-visual arts, but also how a comedian of his stature can deliver a dramatic performance that is heartfelt and passionate.
In the film he plays Acapulco's resident playboy Valentin, whose world is filled with an unending stream of romantic liaisons with a bevy of women and comes crashing down when a former fling leaves a baby on his doorstep and takes off without a trace. Leaving Mexico for Los Angeles to find the baby's mother, Valentin ends up finding a new home for himself and his new-found daughter, Maggie. An unlikely father figure, Valentin raises Maggie for six years, while also establishing himself as one of Hollywood's top stuntmen to pay the bills, with Maggie acting as his on-set coach. As Valentin raises Maggie, she forces him to grow up too. But their unique and offbeat family is threatened when Maggie's natural mother shows up out of the blue, and Valentin realises he's in danger of losing his daughter - and his best friend.
Instructions Not Included marks the magnificent screen debut of Loreto Peralta, a seven-year-old girl who made the production team change the gender of Valentín's kid - who was originally a boy - due to her amazing presence and disposition before the camera. Her physical profile and her proficiency in English gave her the opportunity to audition for the character, where she made the role of Maggie her own by giving it her own dimension.
Her natural talent to interpret a great range of emotions, and the generosity and truthfulness she gives in every scene - something surprising in an actress with such little training - promise for her unlimited career horizons, and even more with such an important starring role in her debut.
"Life is Beautiful made me realise that great comedies are full of heart," says Derbez.
"Chaplin, Marcel Marceau and even Cantinflas are great examples to understand that great comedy includes a message; something meaningful, something true."
"A comedy that manages to enter the audience's hearts, manages to transcend. That's the difference between a movie that makes you laugh for two hours and you forget about it soon after, and a movie that you remember for the rest of your life."
Derbez succeeded in delivering a comedy that entertains, one that he wanted to "touch our hearts, gives us a message and takes us from laughter to suspense, absorbing us within the drama and allows us to enjoy the journey". For him, Instructions Not Included "is a story that is full of light, not only it tries to teach us something and entertain us, but also to touch our hearts like Life is Beautiful or Cinema Paradiso".
It is indeed a powerful and endearing story, offering first-rate entertainment for anyone who has ever loved, with a clever and surprising script (with one of the most unexpected twists), that tells the story of a man that is afraid of everything, especially of compromise.
It is a profound and tearful story of love as big as life itself; a terrific story between a man and a girl who fought against everything for their love and won, except against destiny.
You will laugh. You will cry. And you will fall in love with life all over again. It is one of those rare films that hits all the right emotional chords and makes us realise how important it is to make the most of life, always remembering that anything is possible and that change can be the best thing to happen in one's life.
Instructions Not Included is in Spanish and English, with English subtitles.
Read more about Instructions not Included and other films opening this week at www.writingstudio.co.za
