2013 Mexican film
Instructions Not Included
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![A confused looking man. A small girl dressed in the same colors hugging him.](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Instructions_not_Included.jpg) U.S. theatrical release poster
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Directed by
| Eugenio Derbez
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Written by
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- Guillermo Rios
- Leticia Lopez Margalli
- Eugenio Derbez
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Story by
|
- Guillermo Rios
- Leticia Lopez Margalli
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Produced by
| Monica Lozano
Eugenio Derbez
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Starring
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Cinematography
| - Martin Boege
- Andres Leon Becker
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Edited by
| - Eugenio Derbez
- Santiago Perez Rocha Leon
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Music by
| Carlo Siliotto
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Production
companies
| - Alebrije Cine y Video
- Fulano, Mengano y Asociados
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Distributed by
| Pantelion Films
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Release dates
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- August 30, 2013
(
2013-08-30
)
(United States)
- September 20, 2013
(
2013-09-20
)
(Mexico)
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Running time
| 122 minutes
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Country
| Mexico
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Languages
| [1]
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Budget
| $5 million
[2]
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Box office
| $100.5 million
[2]
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Instructions Not Included
(
Spanish
title:
No se aceptan devoluciones
, literally
Returns not accepted
) is a 2013 Mexican
comedy-drama
film co-written, directed by, and starring
Eugenio Derbez
. The plot follows a Mexican playboy who is suddenly saddled with a love child at his doorstep, and sets off to
Los Angeles
to find the mother. Released in the United States on August 30, 2013, the film received mixed reviews and grossed $100 million worldwide.
Plot
[
edit
]
Valentin Bravo had always been a rather fearful child, afraid of everything from heights to spiders. His father, Juan "Johnny" Bravo, raised him trying to make him fearless by making a
tarantula
walk on Valentin and throwing him off a high oceanside
cliff
known as
La Quebrada
. Valentin grows up to be
Acapulco
's local
playboy
and sleeps with every tourist that crosses his path. One day a former fling named Julie shows up at his doorstep with a baby girl, Maggie, claiming that she is his daughter. Julie leaves the baby with Valentin after asking him for
cab
fare
, but she doesn't come back.
Valentin leaves Acapulco with Maggie and hitchhikes across Mexico and into the United States. Going only by a single photo of Julie in which a Los Angeles hotel is visible in the background, Valentin visits the hotel to track down Julie. However, when Maggie wanders to a nearby pool, Valentin ends up jumping out of the presidential suite into the pool ten stories below, rescuing his daughter. A movie director witnesses this event and hires Valentin as a
stuntman
? a job which Valentin accepts since he believes it is the only way he can support Maggie.
An unlikely father figure, Valentin raises Maggie for six years, giving her a happy, fun, and carefree home. Meanwhile, he also establishes himself as one of Hollywood's top stuntmen to pay the bills, with Maggie acting as his on-set translator as Valentin still doesn't know any English. Meanwhile, during a visit to the doctor in which he receives an injection, the doctor confides in Valentin ? with Maggie out of earshot ? that the treatments aren't working.
To hide from Maggie the fact that her mother abandoned her, Valentin writes weekly letters to Maggie from her, detailing various adventures and feats around the world to explain her absence. Eventually, Valentin gets a call from Julie saying that she is in Los Angeles and wants to meet. Julie, who now lives in
New York City
, tries to be a part of Maggie's life again. After a tearful departure at the airport, Julie realizes she doesn't want to just see Maggie during visits and holidays. She files for custody and cites Valentin's dangerous job and lack of English skills as reasons that he is unfit to raise Maggie. Valentin's sincerity convince the judge that he has Maggie's best interest at heart, and he awards custody to Valentin as he is the only parent she has really known. Not backing down, Julie asks for a DNA test which proves Valentin isn't the father after all. Valentin ends up losing legal custody of Maggie, but they sneak away and decide to go back to Acapulco where he reunites with his friends, although he discovers that his father died a few years ago.
Julie threatens Valentin's director into revealing Valentin's location, who repeatedly claims he doesn't know where the father and daughter are. Eventually he relents and states that Valentin has woken up every day not knowing if it would be the last day he would see his daughter, but the details are not revealed on-screen. Julie finds Valentin and Maggie on the beach and has surprisingly dropped her attempts to gain custody. Instead, the three enjoy time together as a family in Acapulco while in a voice-over Valentin narrates how doctors can sometimes discover a heart defect for which there is no cure and which could kill the patient any time. As Valentin and Julie sit on the beach with Maggie falling asleep in Valentin's lap, Maggie peacefully passes away, which reveals that she, not Valentin, was the one with the heart defect.
One year later, Valentin is seen walking down the beach, with a dog but without Julie. Valentin now understands his father's motives in wanting to give him the courage to face his fears by preparing him to meet them, and expresses gratitude to Maggie for teaching him to face life without being ready. The film ends with a vision of Maggie playing in heaven with her grandfather, while Valentin concludes that even in their absence, his father and daughter continue to teach him how to face life.
Cast
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Reception
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Box office
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]
Instructions Not Included
grossed $7.8 million from 347 theaters in its opening weekend in the
United States
,
[3]
making it the fifth highest-grossing film of the 2013
Labor Day
weekend.
[4]
The film "shattered box office records" and became the "highest-grossing Spanish-language film to open in North America," and by the second weekend the number of theaters showing the film doubled. By the end of its run, it grossed $44.5 million in North America, making it the highest-grossing Spanish-language film and the fourth highest-grossing foreign film all time in United States, along with grossing a total of $100.5 million worldwide.
[2]
In Mexico, the film has a record-breaking $11.52 million from 2,755 screens on its opening weekend, making it the highest-grossing opening for a Mexican film of all time, doubling the record set by
El Crimen del Padre Amaro
of $5.5 million. In the second week it got around $9.4 million to retrieve the first place, accumulating around $27 million and making itself the
highest-grossing Mexican film
of all time by breaking the records of 2013 film
Nosotros los Nobles
of $26.3 million.
[
citation needed
]
At the end of 2013,
Instructions Not Included
ended with a sum of $46.1 million, consolidating as the third highest-grossing movie of the year in Mexico, just below
Despicable Me 2
and
Iron Man 3
.
[5]
Critical response
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On
review aggregator
website
Rotten Tomatoes
, the film holds an approval rating of 57% based on 21 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10.
[6]
On
Metacritic
, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
[7]
Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
that gave the film a rare "A+" grade.
[3]
[8]
Joe Leydon
of
Variety
described
Instructions Not Included
as "sporadically amusing but unduly protracted." He also wrote: "Derbez and Peralta develop a sweetly effective chemistry in their scenes together ... Unfortunately, the supporting players are all too often encouraged to overplay, with decidedly mixed results."
[1]
Accolades
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]
Remakes
[
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]
In 2016, a French remake of the film titled
Two Is a Family
(
Demain Tout Commence
) was released.
[10]
The film was directed by
Hugo Gelin
and stars
Omar Sy
in the role originally played by Derbez.
A Brazilian remake directed by
Andre Moraes
, titled
No Returns Accepted
(
Nao Se Aceitam Devolucoes
), was released on May 31, 2018. The movie stars
Leandro Hassum
as the lead character. A Philippine remake directed by Crisanto B. Aquino, titled
Instant Daddy
released on October 11, 2023. The movie stars
Ryza Cenon
, Althea Ruedas, and
Jerald Napoles
.
[11]
References
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External links
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