The Valet (2022)

A sweet, down to earth, pedestrian romcom, where the underdogs get to come up on top in things that matters ; family, love and true friendships. A surprising feel good little gem for the sluggish summer.

Fmovies: It's only sporadically funny and ties up one of its major narrative issues a little too quickly but The Valet still manages to continue the recent trend of unusually high quality American remakes of European films with a heartwarming romantic comedy that boasts surprising thematic depth and emotional heft.

Eugenio Debrez's innocent and shy persona works extremely well and he's able to do quite a lot without saying anything. He also has solid chemistry with Samara Weaving, whose self deprecating nature and exhausted energy is just as good.

Richard Wong's direction is good, the film is competently shot overall with the films within the film standing out the most. The soundtrack and music by Heitor Pereira is exactly what you expect from a romcom but it just proves why it works so well.

Antonio Flores (Eugenio Derbez) is a parking valet from Los Angeles who lives with his mother cecilia (Carmen Salinas) during a separation from his wife Isabel (Marisol Nichols). During a spat with married billionaire real estate developer Vincent Royce (Max Greenfield) and his mistress prominent actress Olivia Allan (Samara Weaving) over Vincent's repeated delays in leaving his wife, Antonio inadvertently collides with them as the paparazzi photograph them. When Vincent's wife, Kathryn (Betsy Brandt) sees the photos in the tabloids Vincent concocts a story that Olivia was actually dating Antonio. When Antonio is approached by Vincent's lawyer, Daniel (Alex Fernandez), he tells him of the deal to pretend to be dating Olivia Allan which Antonio accepts for a modest fee he intends to pay of Isabel's debts. Over time Antonio and Olivia form a friendship as complications aplenty arise.

The Valet is an adaptation of the 2006 French comedy of the same name by Francis Verber. Development began in 2014 with Eugenio Dubez slated to star and produce the film for Latin American aimed production house Pantelion Films whom the comedian had scored massive success with 2013's Instructions Not Included that served as something of a breakout(in the U. S.) for Dubez who although big in Mexico, had a less than ideal introduction to the United States with roles in the likes of Jack & Jill and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. The Valet fell into development limbo with Dubez prioritizing other projects like Overboard, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, or providing voices for the Spanish dubs of American films such as Secret Life of Pets or The Grinch. The film makes its debut on Hulu and surprising manages to retain the appeal of the French original, while also putting its own unique identity on the material.

The movie follows the key events of the original Verber film pretty closely with the impetus for the lie and various developments in the jealousy of characters like Isabel and Vincent that are parallel to developments in the French original without being complete 1:1 copies. While details have been changed such as the mistress now being an actress instead of a supermodel or the billionaire being a real estate developer instead of an industrial magnate, the movie maintains the original core premise of a simple down to earth guy whose life gets enveloped in an elaborate and contrived farce. Much like the French original, there's a sweetness to this movie I the main character played by Eugenio Derbez and his humility and goodness is nicely contrasted against the glamour and excess he's thrown into, Samara Weaving is really good as Oliva Allan and much like the original film the characters of Olivia and Antonio maintain a plutonic relationship of friendship rather than a romantic one. The movie is longer than the original film by about 40 minutes, and while an increase in runtime is usually not good for a comedy, the movie plays itself a bit differently from the zippy farce of the original film and instead makes itself more of a character based dramedy and refines loose ends of the original material. For example in the original film, the billionaire was dealing with striking factory workers who didn't really tie back into the main plot, and in this film the developer is gentrifying Antonio's neighborhood which creates a greater sense of audience investment in seeing him get his comeuppance. The movie also gives character expansion to Vincent's wife Kathryn as well as expanding upon Olivia's role and

The Valet fmovies. This is a movie you have to see. Not often you will see a remake that is slightly better than the original. This one is. After seeing "La Doublure", I had to see this one. Thinking what do I have to lose, right? Well this movie is surprisingly funny and uplifting. The jokes are everywhere, in the words and also in the non-verbal communication. The interactions between Antonio's mother and Mr. Kim are unexpectedly sweet (she speaks Spanish and he speaks Korean and neither speaks English) which results in an amusing translation of their communication. The plot and subplot (the gentrification) twist you can see coming from a mile away but that does not have any negative impact on the storytelling. This is mainly due to the fantastic cast as a whole and the outstanding performances of both Eugenio Derbez (Antonio) and co-lead Samara Weaving (Olivia), YES, related to Hugo Weaving but she is playing the role of her lifetime. Also an excellent performance from Betsy Brandt (Breaking Bad Maria Schrader), who plays Kathryn Royce. And Kathryn is not happy to be the wife of a cheater and puts down an amazing performance. Even the side story with the two detectives who are rivals but become good friends is very well executed. At first glance, the film is just another romantic comedy. But soon you will realize that this movie (or version of The Valet) will defeat your expectations, whatever they are. This is a perfect example of "Gestalt" , a configuration or pattern of elements so unified as a whole that it cannot be described merely as a sum of its parts. It is more than the sum of its parts. But you will have to go and see for yourself. I rated this movie 8.1/10. A slightly higher rating as the original from 2006. As 8.1 is not allowed, ended up with 8/10. And highly recommended to watch.

I honestly thought this would be just another overly sweetened mess. Far from it. It was an enjoyable romp with some genuine laugh-out-loud moments. The story was fairly predictable, but who cares? This was a warm, enjoyable distraction and I'll watch it again.

Okay, this was pleasant - it was cute, it has its funny moments - some clever moments - it's a little predictable but nonetheless it was a fun watch. We enjoyed - very nice, and original-ish show!