Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer

Admittedly, I’m not familiar with the 2008 Argentinean film Un Novio Para Mi Mujer on which this Mexican remake is based. But it seems to me that Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer or Finding a Boyfriend for My Wife is a patently bad idea, no matter the language.

Paco (De la Torre) tells his guy pals at the gym that he wants to divorce his wife Dana (Echeverría) because she’s a nag and an emotional drain. But he’s too fearful to talk to her about it, so he opts for the path suggested by his friends: Hire the locally renowned pick-up artist, El Tiger (Ochoa) to woo her away. The crestfallen faces of a few cuckolded husbands at the gym attest to El Tiger’s efficacy. Few would ever peg the balding, overweight, and slovenly El Tiger as a Casanova, but that’s part of the comedy, I suppose. El Tiger suggests to Paco that Dana get a job because getting out of the house daily would certainly assist in improving her mood. When Paco lands her a job at a friend’s radio station, Dana becomes an overnight success as a talk-show personality. Between the attentions of El Tiger and the newfound satisfaction of her work, Dana becomes happy again, and Paco’s love for her is renewed. How fickle men are.

Yes, the story is ridiculous, but this is a rom-com, and practical logic rarely rules this realm. What really sinks Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer is its poor development. There’s hardly any background material to support Paco’s claim that Dana is a royal pain. She’s clearly unhappy, smokes too much, and blows smoke in his face. But what we’re shown is nothing that an activity like a job or a medication like Effexor wouldn’t improve. There’s no chemistry between De la Torre and Echeverría, leaving all the comic duties to Ochoa as the unlikely Lothario. By the time the movie’s third act roles around, the movie runs out of steam and reaches an abrupt end. Sadly, Busco Novio Para Mi Mujer finds no seducer of its own.