"How to Be a Latin Lover" is a really new film from this year (2017) and at 115 minutes also a pretty long work. The director has several Emmy nominations, but the two writers are relatively inexperienced, but for that they did a good job. The story does include a bit of family drama, but it is really all about the comedy here from start to finish. Some bad guys, some good guys, some side-plots, some romance etc. basically all you would expect. The lead actor here is Eugenio Derbez and I must admit I have never heard of him before despite his really prolific and successful career. After all he plays the character in a film with Selma Hayek, Rob Lowe, Kristen Bell and Michael Cera and that's quite something. And I would say he did a decent job overall, even if he isn't really part in my favorite scene, the fake cop scene which was really hilarious. Oh yeah, Mckenna Grace is in here too and she deserves a mention too, not just because she plays her part very well, but also because she really shines in Gifted, another new film right now in which she plays a considerably bigger role. But back to this one here. Hayek's character, who was somewhat the only "normal" character really was a bit obsolete at times, also with her romance part, but I guess they needed here for the family conflict thingey, which was among the weaker parts of the film, but still okay I guess. And there is no denying how amazing she looks for her age. No surprise she plays a character a decade younger than she is. Same for Derbez, who also doesn't look his age.
What I really liked about the main character is how he did not get together with Bell's character as you could have guessed at times in some kind of fairy tale story, but that he stays who he is and always has been when we see his new girlfriend at the very end. I also liked how they kept it low in terms of romance and even if people were falling in love on several occasions, it never felt that this is all it was about and that's definitely a good thing as it helped avoiding schmaltz permanently. All the actors did a pretty good jib here, even the ones I don't like that much in general and there's more than one fitting this description. I guess it was my loss that I have not come across Derbez so far, but I will keep my eyes open for him to appear in other stuff I am going to check out in the future. There are some jokes/moments that aren't working out really, but that's the case in every comedy and I am sure it also has a lot to do with my subjective perception. As a whole, I still give the film a thumbs-up because I believe the positive is more frequent than the negative and because I believe there is a good deal of creativity in the script here. Go see it. It also does not have too many lengths, if any at all, which is a good achievement for a running time like this, especially for comedies.
What I really liked about the main character is how he did not get together with Bell's character as you could have guessed at times in some kind of fairy tale story, but that he stays who he is and always has been when we see his new girlfriend at the very end. I also liked how they kept it low in terms of romance and even if people were falling in love on several occasions, it never felt that this is all it was about and that's definitely a good thing as it helped avoiding schmaltz permanently. All the actors did a pretty good jib here, even the ones I don't like that much in general and there's more than one fitting this description. I guess it was my loss that I have not come across Derbez so far, but I will keep my eyes open for him to appear in other stuff I am going to check out in the future. There are some jokes/moments that aren't working out really, but that's the case in every comedy and I am sure it also has a lot to do with my subjective perception. As a whole, I still give the film a thumbs-up because I believe the positive is more frequent than the negative and because I believe there is a good deal of creativity in the script here. Go see it. It also does not have too many lengths, if any at all, which is a good achievement for a running time like this, especially for comedies.