'Rudo y Cursi' review

Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal (Credit: Ivonne Venegas/Sony Classics)

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Half-brothers Tato (Gael García Bernal) and Beto (Diego Luna) take their rivalry to the big leagues when both score a slot in the world of professional soccer. Lest success come too easily, each loses focus on the game, as Beto struggles with a gambling problem and Tato dates a shallow TV personality and tries to become a singer.

The buzz: Great to see García Bernal and Luna reuniting after Alfonso Cuarón's extraordinary 2001 road movie, "Y tu mamá también." Perhaps "Rudo" will offer a sense of déjà vu, since Cuarón produced and his brother, Carlos, who co-wrote "También," wrote and directed.

The verdict: Cuarón doesn't have a lot for Tato and Beto to do; they're often passive participants in their own lives, with the movie offering little soccer action and way, way too many voiceovers from the guys' manager about how the game is a metaphor for life. (Women are like soccer balls because they have to be taken care of and need attention, etc. etc.) The movie, though, is a watchable breeze, elevated by the rapport between García Bernal and Luna that blends love and competition into one indistinguishable family bond. The movie's funny, a little frustrating—you'll predict the climactic on-field event long before it happens—and a perfectly pleasant take on the revolving door of fame.

Did you know? Legend has it, "Rudo" claims, that the first goal scored in a soccer game was done by kicking a severed head between two trees. In the macho rivalry between futbol and American football, futbol just shot way ahead.

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