Half-baked comedy in which a Mexican aviation executive (Luis Gerardo Mendez), embittered by the fact that his father (Juan Pablo Espinosa) — to whom, as a child (Ian Inigo), he was extremely close — abandoned him and his mother (Bianca Marroquin) after emigrating to the United States, finds his relationship with his fiancee (Pia Watson) marred by his resulting lack of empathy. So, at her insistence, he answers a summons to his dad’s deathbed in search of emotional resolution. Refusing to explain himself, the dying man instead introduces his older son to his younger one (Connor Del Rio), the offspring of his second marriage, and instructs the pair to set out on a combination road trip and scavenger hunt that he believes will show them both why he acted as he did. The odd-couple antics along the journey that follows produce the occasional laugh, but director Luke Greenfield’s film is undercut by the fact that neither Mendez’s relentlessly angry pessimist nor his happy-go-lucky half-sibling is a believable character. A scene of harsh nonlethal violence with gore, an adultery theme, an out-of-wedlock birth, several uses of profanity, about a half-dozen milder oaths, a single rough term, considerable crude and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
Half Brothers
