Eugenio Derbez has a really interesting career. He’s been working steadily since the early 80s and has been working in English films some for about the last 20 years. I didn’t become aware of him until his 2013 film Instructions Not Included became a specialty hit as a mostly Spanish comedy with a successful targeted ad campaign (i.e., it played well to almost exclusively Latino audiences). Since then, he’s been one of those guys who pops up in things because Hollywood isn’t sure how much of a star he is. He’s gotten additional starring vehicles like How to Be a Latin Lover and the 2018 Overboard remake. He also pops up in supporting roles like the villain in Dora and the Lost City of Gold and the teacher in CODA. Even in those supporting roles, when he shows up, I kind of get the feeling that to a corner of the audience, he’s the star. The best comparison I can make is when the Leftovers fans would see Carrie Coon in something before 2020-ish*.
*You better believe Carrie Coon as one of the henchmen in Infinity War was something I was watching very closely in that movie.
I can’t say I entirely get his shtick. Part of it is that he’s in his late 50s now. He’s got the man-child problem. His specialty appears to be men in arrested development and the older he gets, no matter how honed he gets it, the smaller the returns. It’s a lot like Adam Sandler. Now imagine if Adam Sandler didn’t show up on the scene until You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Or maybe Jackie Chan is the better comparison. He had a long and impressive career in China. By the time he really broke out in the US, he was 40 and his peak stunt years were behind him. Derbez would’ve fit into a 90s Adam Sandler movie really well actually, but finally getting his chance to shine with American audiences in the 2010s and beyond, it’s too late for it to work optimally.
The Valet is a very simple and stupid movie. The premise is dumb and sweaty as hell. The execution is sloppy. Most of the best jokes are a little too slapstick for my taste. But I still kind of liked it. I’m a big fan of the stealth non-RomCom RomCom. It’s a RomCom in which there’s decidedly no romance. I was so relieved when almost immediately Derbez tells Samara Weaving, playing the actress who is dating him as cover, that he’s old enough to be her father. From then on, it’s pretty clear the movie wasn’t moving toward Derbez and Weaving ending up together romantically. It becomes a friend movie. I really love that the movie ends with them at a restaurant catching up as pals. It turns out that while The Valet has little to offer me in terms of laughs, it has heart in all the right places. And that’s enough for me. Derbez hits the emotional beats well and is a convincing sad-sack. Weaving is fine. I never quite believe her as the biggest movie star in the world, but I also appreciate a gorgeous actress who is willing to look stupid or silly. Her face is also great for looking annoyed without seeming unlikable. This isn’t the best movie you’ll ever see, but if nothing else, it works well as a movie you start and never bother to turn off.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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