Mark Reviews Movies: HALF BROTHERS

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Review by Mark Dujsik | December 3, 2020

The dramatic beats of Half Brothers, focused on a son learning about his long-absent father's history, ring true. The comedic beats of the movie, focused on a wacky sidekick and assorted hijinks on a road trip, feel forced. It's as if screenwriters Jason Shuman and Eduardo Cisneros didn't trust the potential strength of their story or felt a bit too uncomfortable treating this tale with complete sincerity.

The resulting movie, then, is about as mixed as a mixed bag can get. Despite how awkwardly planted most of these gags seem, the humor here is kind of funny, relying on some old standards—a mismatched pairing of disparate personalities, some physical comedy, a cute and amusing animal, which arrives with little explanation and exists in this movie because the presence of an unlikely creature can be funny. The laughs, though, keep us at a distinct distance from the real heart of this story, which decidedly isn't funny and deals with an assortment of personal and political issues.

Could this have been played straight, without the gags or the heightened characters or the random goat that suddenly appears near the start of the second act? The screenwriters and director Luke Greenfield certainly could have downplayed or completely eliminated most or all of these elements. As for whether or not these particular filmmakers could have made a serious movie about this subject matter without it becoming too manipulative or sappy, that's an entirely different question. It's too bad they didn't give that approach a shot, though.

Our story begins in Mexico, where a boy and his father enjoy a happy bond based on love, friendship, and common interests, such as aeronautics and terrorizing the people of the nearby town with a remote-controlled plane. When the country's economy collapses, Flavio (Juan Pablo Espinosa), the father, migrates to the United States in search of work, leaving his young son and wife behind.

About two decades later, Renato (Luis Gerardo Méndez), the son, has become the owner and head of a successful aviation company, as well as a cynical man. A phone call comes: His father, still living in the U.S., is grievously ill and about to die. Renato should visit one last time, because his father wants to try to set things right before he dies.

Renato's fiancée Pamela (Pia Watson) thinks he should. They're about to marry in a matter of days, and she doesn't believe he can be a good father to her son unless her future husband works out his issues with his own father.

Upon arriving at the hospital, Renato discovers that Flavio had another family in the States, including another, far less ambitious son named Asher (Connor Del Rio), whom Renato just met completely by chance at a nearby bakery and instantly hated. Flavio dies without a reconciliation but leaves his sons one final puzzle: a cross-country scavenger hunt that will explain to Renato how and why Flavio never returned home.

That means it's time for the sons to take a road trip, yet another traditional standard of comic premises. The rest of the story unfolds in two modes: the men's travels and misadventures, as they follow a sequence of clues left behind by Flavio, and a series of flashbacks at each stop, detailing the long route Flavio took so many years ago upon coming to the United States.

Within the road trip side of the story, there are two tones, too. One treats everything as a joke—from Asher's incompetence and odd nature, to the sons' new pet goat (which Asher "rescues" from a farm after taking an out-of-the-way detour), to the half-brothers' clashes in personality leading to physical clashes on the side of the road, to a couple of chases after Asher messes up in some way or another. The other treats these characters and their growing bond a bit more sincerely. Renato's painful story is apparent from the prologue, but Flavio was also more or less an absentee father to Asher, whose interests were nothing like the father's. The relationship between the half-brothers is, as Flavio would tell both of his sons, about seeing things from another perspective.

Indeed, the entire story is about perspective, beginning with Renato's limited one and expanding to Asher's experience, as a son who also never knew his father, and Flavio's history. The flashbacks tell a story of longing, obstacles established by personal or systemic prejudice, missed opportunities, mistakes, and one final, impossible decision. It's a rushed account, for sure, because the movie has to return to the gags and, better, the increasing level of understanding between Renato and Asher. There's a certain authenticity in the pain of these scenes, though, that keeps all of the troubles and melodrama grounded in a sense of reality—a bitter pill to offset he goofiness.

Where is that movie—the one that treats these characters and this tale of generational heartache with a bit of dramatic dignity? We can see flashes of it—and sometimes even more—between the road trip setup, the search for clues about and testimonies of Flavio's experiences, and the constant need to undermine something sincere with as many jokes as possible. It's just enough, indeed, that the taste of earnestness makes the broad comedy of Half Brothers seem even more strained and, well, unnecessary.

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