Have a Nice Day! review: Well-made and heartfelt

Have a Nice Day! is a Mexican film that follows Enrique, a retired radio show host, who takes up a job at a grocery store to earn money for fixing his car. He eventually hopes to travel to a party in New Mexico to express his feelings to the love of his life and his former co-host, Irma “La Bomba” Pimentel.

Story

Have a Nice Day! opens in Rioverde, Mexico, where we meet Enrique Guerrero. He is a retired Rock & Roll radio show host and used to work for the Universo Musical radio station.

The film opens with him getting an anniversary party invitation from his former company, honoring him and his former co-host Irma “La Bomba” Pimentel.

It is revealed that La Bomba is the love of Enrique’s life, but things ended badly between them when he left the show. Having not seen her in over 20 years, Enrique musters up the courage to go to the party and express his love.

However, he needs money to fix his busted-up car first and takes up a job at the local supermarket. There, he meets Picho, a young kid preparing for his high school finals and working to earn money for his mom.

They ally to steal scraps of old cardboard from the supermarket and sell it for extra profit. Enrique also promises to help Picho in wooing his crush Amanda, a beautiful cashier.

However, due to Enrique’s selfish antics and single-mindedness, Picho is unable to focus on Amanda, and she starts dating someone else. As a result, he stops working with him.

Now, the old man must grind to earn money by himself as he aggravates his hernia problem and sours his relationships to see La Bomba.

Performances

Álvaro Guerrero leads the film as Enrique and carried the plot singlehandedly. His performance does justice to his character’s internal conflicts.

From the regrets in his past and his grumpy demeanor to his desperation for money in the present and his love for La Bomba, Guerrero manages to shine a light on it all.

However, even though Enrique is quite self-centered, he has sparks of care and compassion which makes him a realistic character.

Eduardo Minett and Picho and Andrea Chaparro as Amanda are nice additions to the supporting cast. Picho’s character is comparative factor to Enrique. Minett does well to play him as the love struck young kid who is conflicted between his feelings and his duty towards his mom.

Unfortunately, Chaparro is mostly sidelined. Her character is reduced to nothing more than a love interest, and has no contribution to the actual plot.

Positives

Have a Nice Day! takes a seemingly simple premise and weaves a lot of complicated and thought provoking story beats from it. For eg. Enrique’s story is kind of a redemption arc to right the wrongs of his past.

However, his selfish attitude is a threat. His desperation for money to meet a woman he hasn’t seen in over 20 years almost ruins his current relationships.

This makes you wonder where the balance lies and what is actually worth preserving, an idea or a fact. This is further enunciated when La Bomba passes away before the event and Enrique’s efforts go in vain.

Director Yibrán Asuad succeeds in creating a world, premise and characters that feel realistic and mostly relatable. This also makes the impactful moments land perfectly.

La Bomba as a motivation is a fantastic idea. The decision to never show her except in visions or pictures craetes an added mystique around her. Kudos to the writers for such creative choices.

The film also doesn’t label its characters and lets the audience form an opinion.

Negatives

The comedy aspect in the film is severely lacking. It doesn’t take away anything from the experience, but for a film to be labelled a comedy drama, it misses out on the former.

There is a lot of character underutilization when it comes to the supporting cast. Have a Nice Day! is an Álvaro Guerrero show, and it doesn’t always seem right.

For instance, Picho’s romantic angle with Amanda just vanishes into thin air which is a bit odd. It could have done with a slightly longer runtime, explaining a lot more about the two young characters.

Verdict

Have a Nice Day! is a feel good movie that takes you by surprise with its brilliant performances and excellent writing. The film definitely deserves a watch as it will leave you with a lot of food for thought.

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