Chasing Papi (2003) Review

Alongside his roles in recent thrillers such as Phone Booth, actor/director Forest Whitaker finds time to produce a breezy new romantic comedy featuring an all Latino cast that includes Roselyn Sanchez. Chasing Papi's Latino cast (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox)

After a lone feature film production credit in the 1990s, Bill Duke’s A Rage In Harlem, Forest Whitaker has pursued that role with renewed vigor lately through his production company Spirit Dance Entertainment, which has first look deals with both Twentieth Century Fox and HBO. In the case of Chasing Papi, much is being made about the fact that the romantic comedy is the first homegrown release by a major Hollywood studio to feature a Hispanic cast, with Mexican soap opera heartthrob Eduardo Verstegui starring as handsome business executive Papi Chulo, who falls in love with three very different women played by Roselyn Sanchez, Sofia Vergara and Jaci Velasquez. But the real story of Chasing Papi is the gaggle of women that Forest Whitaker worked with behind the scenes to bring us this fanciful diversion. In addition to six female co-producers on the project, including Spirit Dance partner Tajamika Paxton, the film marks the directorial debut of veteran TV comedy director Linda Mendoza and features a script that was fashioned by a quartet of female writers. Whitaker also worked closely with savvy Hollywood casting director Chemin Bernard to ensure that maximum sex appeal was derived from the film’s four charismatic leads. Their good looks, visible on screen chemistry and snappy delivery of dialogue are minted from the same formula that Spanish director Pedro Amoldovar has used in some of his most celebrated films. At the center of the film’s success as a romantic comedy is 28-year-old Eduardo Verastegui. Remember the name, because it’s likely that this tall, dark and handsome newcomer from a small village in northern Mexico will turn out to be the movie’s future breakout star. His good looks and seductive accent, which are reminiscent of Antonio Banderas’ American debut in The Mambo Kings, are sure to delight female moviegoers everywhere. Meanwhile, the husbands, boyfriends and others who tag along won’t be too hard pressed to enjoy the voluptuous charms of Puerto Rican actress Roselyn Sanchez (Rush Hour 2, Boat Trip, Basic), TV personality Sofia Vergara and Houston-born Latin music star Jaci Velasquez. As a farce, Chasing Papi is structured around the collapse of Papi Chulo’s attempts to juggle and keep separate his relationships with three different women in Chicago, New York and Miami. Fueled by suspicion and jealousy, the women converge on his hometown of Los Angeles and literally collide in the halls of his well-appointed Spanish style home. Although what ensues is not quite to the scale of The First Wives Club, things get progressively hairy as the three women become entangled in a criminal scheme involving a couple of inept henchmen played by D.L. Hughley and Six Feet Under’s Freddy Rodriguez. Actor Eduardo Verastegui (Courtesy of 20th Century Fox)  In her first lead role, Sanchez tones down the sex appeal to play the role of buttoned down lawyer Lorena, whose journey of self-discovery begins in earnest once she is thrown together with Papi’s two other girlfriends. Along with Vergara’s saucy cocktail waitress and Velasquez’s snobby rich girl, the trio make for a compelling physical comedy team as they find themselves in increasingly ridiculous situations, culminating with an impromptu dance performance at an outdoor festival. While Chasing Papi’s plot grows a little ragged around the edges towards the end, Whitaker and his creative team deserve full kudos for putting together a romantic comedy that is sexy without being gratuitous, funny without being crude and mercifully free of on screen Latino stereotypes such as chambermaids and troubled immigrants. If you’re in the mood for a couple of hours of carefree fun, Chasing Papi is well worth chasing down. Meanwhile, Laura Angelica Simon, the Mexican immigrant who wrote the original screenplay for the film, is already hard at work on her next project, Latino Popstar, a Pygmalion story set in the world of Latin music that is being produced by Madonna and her Maverick Films partner Guy Oseary.