Summary
Netflix Mexican film Como Caído Del Cielo has the wrong message and it’s too long. The only saving grace us that it is slightly funny.
Arriving on Netflix on Christmas Eve is Mexican film Como Caído Del Cielo. The main plot of this 2-hour feature is about Mexican legend Pedro Infante desperate to get into heaven, but due to his slightly questionable, womanising past, God has left him in limbo. He keeps singing in the abyss of limbo which is irritable, so God gives him a chance to redeem himself and puts him in the body of one of his impersonators. Ironically, the impersonator is a womaniser.
God wants Pedro to be a good man.
Como Caído Del Cielo toys with the notion that a man like Pedro can change, but as it borders on comedy, Pedro breaks the rules “unintentionally” a number of times. There seems to be little consequences to the rules, as Pedro ends up falling in love with the impersonator’s wife, and spends the rest of the film doing all he can to redeem himself and secure her trust.
There’s also a little crumb of redemption on Pedro’s family side. He manages to get in touch with his granddaughter, who feels very little for Pedro, and is a hard feminist who believed her grandfather was not a nice person. Pedro has to balance both worlds; make the inpersonator’s wife happy with principles and ensure his granddaughter is okay.
Como Caído Del Cielo is mightily too long. I’m not sure where the Mexican film felt the requirement to make this nearly 120 minutes with such a finite scope. The story wears thin during the second act, when you realise Pedro has thin layers and has no intention in igniting the audience’s interest. The film relies on the comedy of the situation, but it’s not suitably funny, instead relying on the bombastic ways of Pedro as he adapts to the more modern world of his impersonator.
I also do not think Como Caído Del Cielo fits in the world today; a womanising man taking over the body of another womaniser, and his requirement is not to be a womaniser in order to get into heaven. “Be a good boy and you get treated well” — I’m not entirely sure that the message is right.
Como Caído Del Cielo is watchable but forgettable. Pedro’s mission is not laboured by hard policies or rules — when he slightly acts like himself, Pedro, rather than the inpersonator, then he gets a slight headache. It’s a plot point that bares barely any weight.
