Instructions for a scared wolf

*INGLES SOLAMENTE ESPEREN LA TRADUCCION PRONTO*

Eugenio Derbez has being synonym (in Mexico, Latin America and now in the United States) of laughter, funny and joy, and that was what i though when i first saw the trailer of Instructions not Included (2013). I thought that this movie was going to be another typical comedy movie about a father that didn't wanted to recognized the child has his but as the movie progressed he would learn to love the child (like in Big Daddy (1999) or The Game Plan(2007)), thank God i was totally wrong.

Valentin (Eugenio Derbez) starts to narrate his story talking about his childhood and how his father, Johnny Bravo (Hugo Stiglitz), has taught him to overcome his fears and to imagine fear as if it was a wolf that we needed to look in the eyes. The wolf then takes a big important role as Valentin has to face personal fears as the movie progress, we see a wolf through all the movie, just as we have seen oranges in The Godfather (1972).Valentin was exposed to overcome his fears in odd ways like jumping form La Quebrada (a well know tourist place in Acapulco were part of the movie takes place). Years pass and now Valentin is a womanizer, one of his many girls is Julie (Jessica Lindsey), which he states to be his first and last love. We don't know what happen between the couple, but the most obvious thing is that they broke up, but a year later Julie knocks at the door of Valentin's apartment with a baby in her arms saying that it is Valentin's daughter, Julie gets the excuse of not have paying the taxi yet, so she ask Valentin for 10 dollars but she never comes back.

7 years later, and living now in Los Angeles, Valentin and Maggie (Loreto Peralta) now have the most beautiful relationship between father and daughter, but still Maggie gets letters, that are secretly type and deliver by Valentin, from her mother as she hopes that soon her mother will come back. Then the biggest *SPOILER ALERT* occurs and that part of the story will make the most awesome PLOT TWIST EVER IN THE HISTORY OF ALL MOVIES at the end of it.  One day Valentin  receives a call from Julie stating that she will be there soon to meet Maggie, after finally being reunited Julie now starts to fight the parental custody of Maggie, and from this point on I can’t tell more or I would only be typing in big letters: *SPOILER ALERT*.

At the almost beginning of the movie we are introduced to Sammy (Sammy Perez) if you are a fan of Eugenio Derbez works or if you are very well familiarize with Mexican comedy then you will know who is Sammy and oh the joys you will get when you first see him, even though he doesn't play a big role in the movie this character/person (because he plays himself in the movie) is the one that makes you laugh 5 minutes straight with his own dialogue. I confess that when i first i saw Sammy on the trailer i knew this movie was going to be a must see just because of him. This person, or TV celebrity, hasn’t made any big roles on TV or he hasn’t appear many time on television, but his popularity is bigger than the empire state and the grand canyon together and I guess Eugenio knows how popular his co-worker is and that was one of the reasons to include him in the movie. Thumbs up for incorporating such an important and well known personality to all of us young adults!!

This movie (and obviously for being from a Mexican) includes so many references to the Mexican culture in a way that I had never seen before in any American movie that includes Mexican jokes. There was one scene were Valentin was working as a stunt-man (that’s his profession through all the movie) at an Aztec scenario and he was dress as an Aztec warrior, this particular scene remind me of Cantinflas in his movie El Extra (1962), as Cantinflas in this movie he was also a stunt-man himself and in one of the locations he was also dress as an Aztec warrior. I don't know if Eugenio wanted it to be like a tribute to such great actor and comedian of the golden age of cinema in Mexico but still it got me saying: "Eugenio, i know what you did here". Some famous Mexican actors and celebrities do some spontaneous cameos in the movie like Jesus Ochoa, Alessandra Rosaldo (Eugenio Derbez real life wife, how awesome and romantic was that!?) and even Lola La Trailera. This also deserves thumbs up because you could hear the people reaction every time a Mexican actor or reference would come up on screen!!

An important and very excellent feature that this movie brings is that since most of the time the characters are speaking Spanish there are English subtitles at the bottom, and not any horrible made English subtitles that translates literally everything word by word, but subtitles that did made sense with the Spanish audio and I guess that made it also funny in English (I watched it in Spanish so no need to be reading word by word the English subtitles). The parallel coincidence that are made in the beginning, Valentin and baby Maggie walking by the high way and Valentin telling Maggie why she will be better in the U.S, and at the almost end of the movie, Valentin telling now Maggie why she will be better in Mexico walking on a high way too, are those little details that makes this movie more interesting.

The drama, suspense and of course the comedy are what makes this such a great movie but is the story itself that makes it a must watch movie, and not because I’m a fan of Eugenio Derbez since XHDERBEZ or Derbez en Cuando or my favorite show that Eugenio produced named Vecinos, that I say this but the life lesson that we learn at the end made me realize why this movie is call Instructions not Included; because we really don’t born with instructions that make us prepare for such things. This is the second time, in my experience, that the end of a movie makes the whole movie theater leave quietly.