Nacho Libre film review

certificate_12A

NACHO LIBRE

Nacho Libre possesses an absurdist quality that cocoons it in a surreal Technicolor Felliniesque world. It celebrates its dumbness with an engaging charm and sweetness. But it's the sheer exuberance and appeal of Jack Black that ultimately wins out. He has an innate silliness that makes him endearing even when the films he sometimes picks are anything but. And no doubt there will be many who will feel Nacho Libre continues that trend, but for those who succumb to its brazen stupidity and kitsch, it offers an amusing diversion.

Set during the 1970s in a monastery in the countryside outside Oaxaca, Mexico, Black plays Brother Ignacio, a friar who is a cook at the orphanage in which he grew up. Devoted to the children - "They are my heart" - he is less committed to his religious vocation. His true passion is wrestling and the glamorous stars of the lucha libre ring. With the other brothers doubting Ignacio's faith and his culinary prowess -"I've had diarrhea since Easter," one declares - he yearns respect and determines, "Maybe it's time to get different duties." It's a decision hastened by the arrival at the monastery of a new teacher, the very beautiful Sister Encarnacion (Ana de la Reguera), with whom he is instantly struck.

In a striking outfit of blue tights underneath red underwear, which gloriously accentuates his portly frame, and a mask to conceal his identity, Igancio assumes the wrestling name of Nacho, teams up with the village vagabond Esqueleto (Hector Jimenez), and becomes a luchedore. The unlikely pair get their asses kicked in the ring, but the pain is eased by the money they earn which affords Ignacio a natty wardrobe and the opportunity to provide the orphans with better food.

Co-written and directed by Jared Hess, Nacho Libre has much in common with his previous Napoleon Dynamite. Both feature valiant losers who possess impenetrable skins, and a cast of eccentric characters. They also share a somewhat bizarre sensibility. One of the many outlandish wrestling scenes involves Nacho and Esqueleto battling two dwarves who resemble a cross between lions and inhabitants of Narnia.