Nacho Libre (2006)

Directed by: Jared Hess
Written By: Jared Hess, Jerusha Hess and Mike White
Starring: Jack Black, Ana de la Reguera and Héctor Jiménez

Ignacio is a cook in a Mexican monastery who believes he can do more with his life. The monks don't even give him enough money to make fresh food for the orphans in his charge. While in town he gets the idea to raise money for the kids by working as a professional wrestler by night. The problem is that the monks see the lives of the popular wrestlers as a sinful. So the question is whether it is moral to pursue a lifestyle that the church does not approve for the sake of ultimately supporting the church.

To suggest that Nacho Libre, a film by the writers of Napoleon Dynamite and the writer of The School of Rock, answers any ethical or philosophical questions would be a vast misrepresentation. Besides its premise, the plot is weak and the characters are one-dimensional but the film is pretty damned funny.

Jack Black, who has a comedic presence the size of the central character of his previous movie King Kong, carries this film. I haven't seen School of Rock but I would venture to say that this was his best performance since his break out in High Fidelity ("Oh, I'm sorry, is your daughter in a coma?") .

I have to admit, that I did like Napoleon Dynamite better. I think Jared and Jerusha Hess loved their characters more. Even though he was the antagonist of the story, you could still feel sorry for Uncle Rico in a pathetic sort of way. There were so many good characters in that story.

In Nacho Libre there are really only three characters that get any air time Nacho (Ignacio), the beautiful nun who Nacho has a crush on, Sister Encarnación, played by Ana de la Reguera, and Nacho's malnourished tag-team partner Esqueleto, played by Héctor Jiménez.

The first few scenes set up single gags that aren't that funny. But the real comedy comes when Hess just sets the camera on Black and lets him do his thing. Whether it's his heroic affectations -- he does a lot of posing -- or his catch phrases that only work with his Mexican accent ("take it easy") or his unconvincing arguments for the advantages of a monk's life -- which are complicated by his crush on Sister Encarnación -- to the young orphans.

In the end, Nacho Libre is an earnest tale about a sincere and naïve underdog. But there really isn't much of a moral, implicit or explicit. It's just a really funny story. And isn't that enough?