Half Brothers Official Trailer Released. Click to Watch

Half Brothers Updates: “Half Brothers” by Luke Greenfield is a two-part story. Two half-brothers who couldn’t be more dissimilar meet for the first time as their father is dying, which gives the film its title. Due to the fact that this is a comedy, calamity occurs.

Their father passes away unexpectedly, and because he enjoyed riddles, he sets them on a cross-country road journey to find answers to their questions about his history, especially why he abandoned his oldest son Renato (Luis Gerardo Méndez) in Mexico.

The other is their father’s dramatic and unpredictable immigrant narrative, which pulls him away from his Mexican family to build a new one in the United States. It’s a complicated story, not only in terms of how it all comes together, but also in terms of the ethical, emotional, and financial issues it raises.

The film begins in the mid-1990s, with a young boy and his cool father, Flavio (Juan Pablo Espinosa), who enjoy mischief and flying planes. When the economy collapses, Flavio flees to the north and never returns, leaving a small kid to grow up filled with hate and anger.

Renato is now an adult, acerbic, and without friends—yet he has found himself a fiancée with a little child of her own. When he travels to the United States to say his goodbyes, he instead discovers he has an obnoxious half-brother, Asher (Connor Del Rio), and must now answer his father’s final mystery to discover the truth behind his life’s story.

Half Brothers Official Trailer

Half Brothers
The New York Times

Flavio’s story of traveling to America in search of a job is far more interesting than the boy’s arguing road trip. He discovers a harsh immigration system, anti-Mexican bigotry, and, at first, a scarcity of funds. But he also stumbles upon opportunities and the kindness of strangers.

Unfortunately, as his sons put together his voyage, his story is delivered in stop-and-go segments. Sitting in the car with the movie’s half-brothers is nothing short of torturous. They’re both difficult to put up with on their own.

Renato has the makings of a low-grade sociopath, thinking exclusively in cold logic and being indifferent to everyone he considers to be less fortunate than himself. According to all reports, Asher represents all of the negative clichés about Americans. He’s entitled, disrespectful, and lazy, with no work ethic to speak of, and he can ramble for hours without saying anything.

In a nutshell, he’s Renato’s polar opposite. However, instead of serving as humorous fuel, the Odd Couple-like pairing sputters. Espinosa and Del Rio have little to work with other than the outlines of their characters, and neither can make their relationship work.

The story starts with a strained premise, one that could have easily been condensed to a fast bedside confession if Flavio’s perverse scavenger hunt hadn’t intervened. The story of Ali LeRoi and Eduardo Cisneros, which was adapted for the cinema by Cisneros and Jason Shuman, contains a few surprises. They fight, they makeup, they fight and makeup, and so on till they reach their destination. Flavio’s story is given a little more attention, however, the dots linking the strands of his story are a little fragmented.

Greenfield’s film has a lot of fun with the American side of the border, and rightfully so. Renato has a running joke about having to deal with Americans’ inadequate awareness of their neighbors, which frequently revolves around ziplining queries. While “Half Brothers” has a few excellent laughs, there are a few slapstick situations that don’t make much sense, such as why Asher drives 60 miles out of his way to steal a goat.

There could have been a lot of cleverer scrapes and awkward talks that would have made the audience chuckle without taking the movie so far off the rails. It’s a rocky trip no matter which path you select because of the inconsistent tale and people in the film.

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