Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Instructions Not Included Blu-ray Movie Review

One man and a baby.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 23, 2014

That old adage that kids don’t come with instructions manual is put to the test in the hokey but fitfully charming Spanish language film Instructions Not Included, which according to the breathless press release accompanying this Blu- ray is evidently the most successful Spanish language film ever released in the United States. Co-written, directed and starring Mexican television favorite Eugenio Derbez (La Familia P. Luche), Instructions Not Included is breezy and often gently amusing, if only occasionally laugh out loud hilarious. Derbez’s persona may remind some of another ebullient foreigner who co-wrote, directed and starred in a film which became a significant hit stateside, Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful ). Both Derbez and Benigni have an innate charm and kind of loosey-goosey physical demeanor that makes them seem like grown up kids, and both of them interact beautifully with the actual kids who are part of their respective films. While Benigni’s film posited a happily married husband and father, Derbez’s formulation finds a confirmed bachelor playboy type whose life of hedonistic luxury is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a baby he evidently fathered a few months previously. Derbez’s character of Valentin isn’t exactly a bad egg, but he’s more than devoted to the pleasures of flesh, something that is perhaps a defensive reaction to having been repeatedly traumatized by his father as a child. Both of these extremes are depicted in amusing montages that start the film off on a briskly enjoyable pace. We see Valentin as a young boy being taught by his father not to fear things like a giant tarantula crawling up his face, jumping off a humongous cliff into the sea, or spending the night locked in a cemetery mausoleum which also happens to inhabited by feral wolves. The film seems to suggest that having survived those rigors, Valentin is out to cram as much enjoyment into his adult life as possible, and the next montage sees the now grown man in various acts of seduction with a huge variety of women. He is in fact asleep with two females when his doorbell rings one sunny Acapulco morning and he’s greeted by a long ago lover who presents to him his previously unknown progeny.

Instructions Not Included is one of those highly improbable films that coasts by on a considerable amount of charm but which doesn’t really withstand any concentrated attention paid to various plot elements. Valentin’s erstwhile girlfriend is the gorgeous blonde American Julie (Jessica Lindsey), who introduces Valentin to their infant daughter, asks for a little money to pay off the cab who has delivered her to Valentin’s improbably luxurious pad (for a guy who never seems to earn money doing anything), and then of course uses the money to simply take off, leaving the hapless bachelor with a cooing and gurgling baby. Julie calls Valentin a bit later to tell him that she just can’t parent the child, which of course begs the first of several plot point questions: why? She’s already left the baby and could have just taken off without any further contact. But of course she doesn’t hang up the phone and Valentin overhears the flight announcement indicating Julie is on her way back to Los Angeles. This kind of lazy screenwriting tends to at least slightly undercut some of Instructions Not Included’s otherwise amiable enough ambience.

Valentin of course does go to Los Angeles and in one of the film’s admittedly very funny sequences manages to avert disaster with his toddler daughter, thereby gaining an instant occupation as a stuntman in Hollywood’s film industry. The film continues to follow the sweet if entirely formulaic relationship between Valentin and little Maggie (Loreto Peralto), where Valentin is the big kid and the young Maggie is in many ways the parent. The film is engaging enough in this central section, but then yet another illogical turn of events throws everything into faux melodramatic mode.

For absolutely no discernible reason other than that it provides the film with a third act, Julie reenters the scene and rather illogically wants to reassert her parental rights. At this point the film veers rather precipitously into an uneasy dramatic segment that is tonally at odds with featherweight sensibility that guided the first two thirds of this outing. Derbez goes one step further by introducing yet another melodramatic element that is ripped from any given Lifetime movie of the week.

There’s a certain amateurish quality to some of Instructions Not Included, with a kind of undisciplined approach to the direction that leaves scenes hanging on too long and performances ranging all over the place from Three Stooges to Clifford Odets kitchen sink drama. The entire film often feels like a cobbled together mishmash that is desperately in need of some kind of firm guiding hand. Hidden within the chaos are a few endearing moments, but Instructions Not Included evidently lives up to its title in more ways than one.

Instructions Not Included Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Instructions Not Included is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. While this is a candy colored outing that features some incredibly bright primaries which pop very nicely in this high definition presentation, things tend to look a little soft for much of the film, especially in midrange and wide shots. The film benefits from many brightly lit outdoor scenes, where a bright golden hue infuses many sequences. Contrast is generally strong and close-ups reveal very good levels of fine detail.

Instructions Not Included Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Instructions Not Included features a perfectly serviceable lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original Spanish. (This is yet another recent release with an introductory menu asking the viewer to select what language they want the main menu to be in. It defaults to English. If you happen to choose Spanish inadvertently and aren't fluent, there's an obvious choice at the bottom of the main menu to convert things back into English.) This is a rather front heavy mix that only tends to really utilize the surrounds in some of the score and occasional ambient environmental effects. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and there are no problems of any kind to report.

Instructions Not Included Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary. Director Eugenio Derbez gives you a chance to brush up on your Spanish (and/or English) by delivering one of the few bilingual commentaries that I personally can recall. Derbez tends to speak in (heavily accented) English for a while and then give more or less summaries of the same content in Spanish. He's very informative but quite conversational, and the commentary has few pauses.

Instructions Not Included Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Instructions Not Included is decidedly a mixed bag, and your personal reaction is probably going to depend on how tolerant you are of sudden changes in tone as well as how much you can stand some pretty incessant mugging on the part of some of the performers. There's a sweetness to a lot of the interactions between Debrez and little Peralto, but I personally found the two left turns this film takes in its third act actually annoying. The film obviously pleased a lot of people based on its box office (which frankly isn't at true blockbuster levels), and those folks should certainly be pleased by the solid technical merits of this release. With the caveats expressed in this review duly noted, and for those who don't mind a somewhat uneasy mix of slapstick and melodrama, Instructions Not Included comes Recommended.