(IMAGE: Hulu)
Lionsgate, 2022. 123 minutes. Comedy.
Grade: 2.5 out of 4
Eugenio Derbez may be Mexico’s top comedy star, but here, he’s at least as familiar for colorful turns in serious dramas, like the children’s doctor in Miracles From Heaven, or the music teacher in CODA. (Imagine if Jim Carrey were only known overseas for The Truman Show.) Hulu’s The Valet, like his previous remake of Overboard and from the same screenwriters, is the latest maneuver to take his comedic strengths more mainstream to non-Latino crowds in the U.S. Based on the 2006 French film La Doublure, which served as a vehicle for Moroccan-Canadian stand-up comic Gad Elmaleh, it’s not unlike the Overboard formula in reverse. This time, Derbez plays the noble poor man who pretends to be the boyfriend of a rich, shallow celebrity (Samara Weaving) at her request.
Derbez is Antonio Flores, a valet parker in Beverly Hills who otherwise rides a bicycle, all the way from his home near MacArthur Park (a lot of the movie feels very L.A. specific – non-natives may not realize the distance that entails). He’s a noble single dad who lives with his mother and kids in a small apartment, hoping his estranged wife will change her mind and not divorce him. Weaving plays Olivia Allan, a major movie star whose Amelia Earhart biopic is about to open big, but which she has trouble focusing on because she’s having a covert affair with a married – and massively corrupt – city councilman named Vincent Royce (Max Greenfield).
Due to, uh, circumstances, Antonio flips his bike over a car right as Olivia is walking away angrily from Max, and paparazzi catch them all in a photo. To save his ass and marriage, Vincent tells his wife Olivia must have been having an affair with Antonio. Then he sends his lawyer to bribe Antonio into going along with the charade, one Olivia’s surprisingly amenable to. Complications ensue when Olivia realizes, looking at Antonio, what a good and responsible man is supposed to look like, and how much Vincent does not fit that bill.
Early in the charade, Antonio’s Latino coworkers warn him that white people hate seeing Mexicans with their women. The movie has seemingly taken this to heart – a minor character named Natalie (Diany Rodriguez) gets maybe three or four scenes (I didn’t count, but it’s not many) purely to introduce her as a culturally safe potential love interest. There’s also the ex, Marisol Nichols’ Isabel, who gets more turned on by Antonio when she sees him with an internationally famous hottie. Never is there any real chance that Antonio and Olivia will be anything more than platonic pals at most, though they’ll gladly fake the alternative.
The Valet wants to be a showcase for Derbez, but it’s a much more impressive vehicle for Weaving, who usually favors action and horror. Adopting a Kristen Wiig-like flighty-yet-enunciated voice, screaming about her needs, and gradually breaking out of her shell as a mildly rebellious prankster trapped in layers of PR scrubbing, she makes Olivia a wonderful comedic creation who’s so well-rounded you can hate and love her within the space of just a few minutes. Her character is supposed to be one of the world’s greatest actors; Weaving rises to the occasion to suggest she might be as well.
As for Derbez, it’s clear why he’s a star – he’s capable of showing unvarnished, sincere emotion as well as goofy mugging and big pratfalls. It might be nice if the screenplay could decide on a consistency between them, though. Antonio is a hard-working, very-much together guy when we meet him, but once he has to fake being Olivia’s lover, he suddenly starts sweating, stammering, and blurting out stupid things like a complete fool. As a way to get that version of his shtick into the movie it may make some sense, but as character development, it does not. We’ve previously seen him coolly discuss fancy cars, acting like he owns the one he’s driving, with other Beverly Hills hotshots. And he’s too noble to be swayed by lust for Olivia, whom he only ever treats respectfully while pining for Isabel.
Also, the movie’s a bit long, with several subplots to pay off. The French film ran 86 minutes; The Valet goes for 123. A character death and subsequent funeral feels like excess padding, and feels like it’s only included to show that Derbez can cry on cue.
All-told, though, the movie’s mostly charming, and nicely conveys the L.A. multicultural vibe without overselling it. It’s not exactly Derbez’s Ace Ventura, but it’s a great piece of character work from Weaving. Both are fun to watch even when the moviemaking surrounding them is strictly by-the-book.