Instructions Not Included review: A mish mash that works in spite of itself

Instructions Not Included is a Spanish film that was originally released under the title No se aceptan devoluciones.  It’s an updated version of Kramer vs. Kramer, but played for laughs and with one of the main characters having a terminal illness.  What is surprising is that, even with this plot, Instructions Not Included works out to be an entertaining, at times laugh out loud movie.

Eugenio Derbez plays Valentin, a Mexican playboy who seduces women in Acapulco.  As fate would have it, one of these women gets pregnant, shows up 20 months later and leaves the baby (Maggie)with him.  After the requisite freak out and inability to change the diaper scene; he gets it together and realizes he has a photo and place of employment for the mother in Los Angeles.

Valentin and Maggie hitch a ride to the border where they get smuggled in with a kind hearted, very distinctive looking trucker.  From there they search out the place where her mother used to work.  Valentin then jumps into the pool from the 10^th story, which in turn impresses a casting director who is looking for a stuntman.

Maggie and Valentin live in Los Angeles, where she grows up and he works in movies.  Valentin is a man child who showers Maggie with too many gifts, lives in a world of play and writes elaborate, fairy tale reasons as to why her mother isn’t there.

About two-thirds of the way through Instructions Not Included Maggie’s birth mother calls and would like to see her.  This is where most of the comedic aspects of the movie are put to the side and the mother bonding and eventual custody battle come in.

Instructions Not Included is mainly comedy with some dramatic moments, but in the final third of the movie it gets serious very quickly.  Actually the plot seemed to turn on a dime.  I wasn’t expecting the heavy drama and its quick arrival left me feeling mixed emotions about the film.

However, the farther away I get from the movie the more I like it.  Instructions Not Included does have big plot holes and two or three storylines that Nitro Circus couldn’t jump.  Normally my movie tastes wouldn’t tolerate such a strain of credibility, but they’re given a reprieve here by the charming performance of Eugenio Derbez.

It’s such a mixed up blend of so many movies that it seems like something you won’t like.  Check your plot logic at the door and get in your daddy, rom-com, with a bit of drama movie mood and you’ll enjoy it.

Instructions Not Included is the highest-grossing Spanish language film in North America and the fourth-highest grossing foreign film in the United States.