"Rudo Y Cursi" is a delightful and breezy modern fable that only hits you with its darkness as you walk into the harsh light of the theatre lobby.  The re-teaming of "Y Tu Mama Tambien" writer Carlos Cuaron (who also directed the film) with stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna strikes a completely different tone and message than "Y Tu Mama" but it blends to a very light and funny film while slowly unveiling a grim message about the nature of brotherhood.

Beto, aka "Rudo" (Luna), and Tato, aka "Cursi" (Bernal), are half-brothers with big dreams, soccer* skills, and are just trying to make ends meat as fruit pickers in their small Mexican village.  But talent scout Batata aka "Baton" (Guillermo Francella giving a great performance that made me want to dig through his filmography and see more of his work) finds these diamonds in the rough but since he can only recruit one, Beto, a goalie, and Tato, a striker, decide to settle matters with a penalty kick.  Beto tries to convince Tato to let him block the shot but since these brothers can never seem to communicate, Tato ends up making the shot because he doesn't know right from left and gets to soccer glory first.  However, he doesn't forget his half-brother and makes sure that Baton recruits Beto as soon as possible.

From this point, the film practically separates the two and follows them on their own paths.  Tato's true passion isn't soccer but singing despite the fact that he's not very good at it (but it leads to the film's best moment where he sings a Spanish version of "I Want You to Want Me" in an awesomely cheesy music video).  Beto's problem is gambling and while the film doesn't spend much time with their pre-soccer careers, it lets us know that these are their passions and not something developed post-fame but rather exacerbated by it.

While Cuaron's direction is more-than-capable especially for his first feature-length film, his greatest strength is still in his writing.  One of "Y Tu Mama's" best elements was the omniscient narration, quickly providing life stories in a short but profound manner.  In "Rudo Y Cursi", these brief moments of narration are more comical in nature and revealing its narrator, Baton, as pretentious and banal. 

As for his main characters, Cuaron isn't trying to create a deep human study as much as he's using them to craft a moral and trusting his actors to bring Rudo and Cursi to life.  Luna and Bernal do not disappoint and while I think Bernal has had the more successful career post-"Tambien" and they're both excellent in this film, I found Luna conjuring more complex emotions out of "Rudo" as it’s a character who's almost aware of his selfishness and feels depressed that he can't change his nature. The balancing act is to show these men as selfish but not to make them so despicable that we no longer care about their lives.  The trick is in their buffoonery and in keeping the film light so that their actions of pissing away their success on obvious traps of self-indulgence emphasize the comic rather than the tragic.

But there is a tragedy in "Rudo Y Cursi".  While the film has obvious moral lessons ("Fame can't change or hide your true character and it can lead to your undoing", "Pride before the fall", "Don't let your passions consume your talent"), I found a far darker message by the end about the nature and perhaps meaninglessness of brotherhood.  But Cuaron wisely doesn't weigh the film down with the message and instead let me realize it after the film was done.  For its runtime, "Rudo y Cursi" is a highly enjoyable flick and I eagerly await what Carlos Cuaron has in store for his next act.

Rating ----- B plus

*I know I should call it "football" but I'm American and it's just not going to happen.