Hopefully this will be third time lucky. It's hard to know how to begin a review for this film because in order to convey its power I would have to give away a pretty hefty plot twist, and I couldn't do that because I really want you all to watch this for yourselves.
Just ask hubby: I pride myself on working out the plot twists of Hollywood films on a regular basis (not blowing my own trumpet - much). But I completely and utterly failed to foresee the ending of Instructions Not Included.
Valentin (superbly played by Eugenio Derbez, who also directs here) is a cowardly love-rat from Acapulco, Mexico, who still resents his father's 'Feel the Fear' attitude to child-rearing and who sleeps with any pretty tourist passing through his town.
However, one weekend an old flame he barely remembers (Julie from America, played by Jessica Lindsey) turns up with a baby in tow, introduces Valentin to his daughter Maggie and then promptly leaves to pay the cab driver...which Valentin realises far too late is code for 'fleeing to catch a plane without the baby.'
To cut a long story short, he sneaks into America illegally, hoping to find Julie at a hotel in L.A. he knows she once worked at and when he can't find her, ends up bringing the baby up himself in Los Angeles, supporting them both by becoming Hollywood's best stuntman. A particular delight is the excellent Johnny Depp impersonator playing a pastiche of the real Johnny Depp, one of Valentin's best friends after they've worked together on several Pirates of the Caribbean-like movies.
I am amazed that my raucous laughter did not wake the neighbourhood (I was watching this well past bedtime). This movie, though it didn't grab me in the first ten minutes as exactly hilarious, turned out to be one of the funniest things I have ever seen. And then some.
Even when a now seven-year-old Maggie is reunited with her mother and Julie even manages to win full custody of the child Valentin has raised for six years, the laughs are played in full. There are sad moments but they are always quickly followed by much hilarity because this film is a comedy, right?
Wrong.
VERY wrong, because this is possibly the cleverest part of Instructions Not Included. The whole time you think you are watching a great Spanish-language film and laughing your socks off, you are really only watching Maggie's perception of the movie. Again, as I said before, I can't spoil it for you, but when you get to the part where the true story of Instructions Not Included comes out, you will look back on everything that went before and see every little joke in a newly sorrowful light. All the time Julie is arguing that Valentin - with his crazy job and his apartment that makes Toys 'R' Us look boring - is still too immature to be a father, only Valentin and his boss Jack know just how amazing a parent and how different a man he has become.
To put this into perspective, if I worried that my laughter would wake the neighbourhood, I did not expect to suddenly be crying so inconsolably that I did wake my husband who dashed downstairs thinking there had been some message of calamity via text.
I really can't say any more, except go and watch it for yourself. It is on Netflix. If you don't have Netflix, I'm sure one of these other streaming services has it, and failing that, there's still always a DVD.
