Here at Way Too Indie, we’re always rooting for the underdog, and this past weekend, one of the smallest dogs in the fight surprised everyone with a stellar performance at the box office. Instructions Not Included, Mexican television star Eugenio Derbez’s “comedy with heart”, hit number 5 this past holiday weekend on the box office charts, standing shoulder to shoulder with the likes of big studio releases like Disney’s Planes and The Weinstein Co.’s Lee Daniels’ The Butler.

The box office rankings for Labor Day weekend were as follows:

1. Lee Daniels’ The Butler ($ 20M)

2. One Direction: This is Us ($18M)

3. We’re the Millers ($15.9M)

4. Planes ($10.7M)

5. Instructions Not Included ($10M)

Distributed by Panelion—a label aimed at the Hispanic demographic born of a partnership between Lionsgate and Televisa—the film flew completely under the mainstream radar, but the big weekend numbers are a clear indication of the power of the Spanish-speaking community. What’s even more impressive is that Instructions Not Included (which had an estimated budget of around $10 million) was only released in 347 theaters across the country. The studio plans on expanding the film to 500 theaters this Friday.

It’s great to see a core audience go out to the movies in such numbers, supporting a film they love by buying tickets and spreading the love through good ol’ word-of-mouth support. The budget is about as indie as it gets, and it’s good to see such spirited enthusiasm drive a passion project such as this to mainstream success.

I recommended the film in my review, and got to talk to Mr. Derbez about his precious film (the project was 12 years in the making) in our interview with the veteran comedic actor.

In Instructions Not Included‘s most heartwarming, gleeful moments, a father and his 6-year-old daughter (wearing matching, brightly colored pajamas that look ripped straight out of Yo Gabba Gabba) jump, play, tumble, and carelessly goof off together in their home, a loft space that’s somehow even more whimsical than their Saturday-morning-cartoon jammies. The high-ceiling play place is impossibly packed to the brim with instruments of fun—a giant indoor slide, inflatable pink dinosaurs (inflatable everything, really), a basketball hoop, bean bags, robots, and anything else you can dream up—and the father-daughter dynamic duo take full advantage, smiles all around. It’s an excessive children’s fantasy that eats Tom Hanks’ apartment from Big for breakfast. They’re having the time of their lives.

Moments like these (Instructions Not Included is full of them) are so sweet they’ll make your heart swell until it feels like it’ll burst—and then, suddenly, the film’s sobering, tragic, punch-in-the-face third act takes your happy heart, rips it out of your chest, and smashes it to smithereens. Roll credits.

Mexican television superstar Eugenio Derbez, known for his humor, throws a curveball in his feature directorial debut, a deceptively dramatic comedy. Great films engage the heart, and Derbez’s parable of fatherhood, trust, and overcoming fear achieves this through well-acted, tender scenes of affection. But the Latino star—who began working on the script 12 years ago—likes a bit of salty with his sweet, and throws in not just a pinch, but a handful of salt right at the end, almost spoiling the pot. It’s an ambitious play that’s not completely destructive—you can see what Derbez was going for, and most of the film’s moving parts (mainly the committed, excellent cast) work brilliantly.

Derbez (whose rubber face was made to look mischievous) plays Valentin, a panty-chasing bachelor in Mexico who, after a clever drop-and-run by a hippy-ish ex-fling (Jessica Lindsey), is left with a baby girl who’s purportedly his own. Valentin, who wants nothing less than to be a father (he’s having so much fun with the panties!), is forced to move to Los Angeles to start a new life with his blond-haired, blue-eyed daughter, Maggie. Skip to six year later and Valentin’s embraced fatherhood wholeheartedly, having a blast with Maggie (now played by the terrific Loreto Peralta) in their non-stop pajama party lifestyle, which he funds with his gig as a Hollywood stuntman (Looney Toons stunt gags abound.)

Derbez and Peralta are priceless together—they laugh and play constantly and yet speak to each other intelligently and with adult-like wit. You can see Derbez’s real-life love of parenthood in his eyes, and Peralta is enchanting, perceptive, and bright. Valentin refuses to speak English, so Maggie acts as his walking translator, which is insanely adorable (Peralta impressively speaks both English and Spanish perfectly.) Maggie has a wildly courageous spirit and inspires Valentin to perform feats of reckless bravery in her honor—despite his natural gutlessness—so that he can be (or at least look like) every bit the hero she believes he is.

Since she could read, Valentin has been giving Maggie fake, hilariously outlandish letters and postcards from her mother, Julie, who’s been out of the picture since she left her on Valentin’s doorstep. As far as Maggie knows, her mother has been fighting evil-doers, stopping floods, and saving lives around the globe (and beyond—during her school’s show-and-tell, she holds up a piece of cheese and claims her mom bought it for her from the moon.) Maggie’s bedroom wall is covered with “photos” of her mom palling around with the likes of Bono, a Mariachi band, and even Leonardo DiCaprio (Valentin only has one photo of Julie, which he’s hilariously recycled and pasted onto all of the sloppily doctored photos.)

Julie returns, bringing with her the truth and the thrust of the film’s drama. She engages Valentin in a bitter custody war, claiming that Maggie “has problems because she lives in a fantasy world.” Is the candy-colored, 24-hour-playtime lifestyle Valentin provides for Maggie a healthy one? Maybe not, but Valentin has his reasons, though he refuses to divulge them in court for some reason. Though Lindsey is the main source of conflict, she’s never completely vilified, which is crucial.

Instructions Not Included‘s humor, while effective, feels confused as to who it’s aimed at. The physical gags are unapologetically slapstick and cartoony. In one sequence, Derbez gets launched into a stone wall repeatedly like Wile E. Coyote. On the other hand, some of the jokes are undeniably raunchy, like when a sultry neighbor asks Valentin to help her with her “plumbing” in her apartment, and Maggie remarks that her “drain is always backing up.” It all just feels a little scattered and occasionally inappropriate, though I was admittedly laughing quite a bit, especially in the first half.

The script is funny and affecting, but begins teetering as the film gets progressively more dramatic and heavy. In the film’s last 15 minutes or so, there are some jarring twists and turns that, while successfully heartbreaking, feel abrupt and manipulative. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and the melodrama of it all is cloying. There are a lot of great messages here which Derbez delivers successfully, and they ultimately shine through Instructions Not Included‘s dark cloud of a finale. The way Maggie transforms Valentin from a scumbag beach bum to a loving, responsible father is a beautiful character arc that resonates nicely. If only I didn’t leave the film feeling so jerked around.

Hailing from Mexico City, Eugenio Derbez is one of the most prominent and beloved figures in Mexican television and cinema today, and one of the most recognizable actors to Spanish-speaking Americans. He’s in the process of crossing over and showing English speaking audiences what he can do as an entertainer.

Instructions Not Included, his directorial debut (he also stars), is a shining example of his capabilities. When a young ladies man (Derbez) is handed a baby girl at his doorstep by an old fling (Jessica Lindsey), he’s forced to move to California, face the fears of fatherhood, and raise his daughter (Loreto Peralta) the best way he knows how.

Derbez chatted with us about the fears of directing, casting on Twitter, the 12 year history behind the film, and more.

Instructions Not Included opens this Friday, August 30^th in San Francisco

You’re an expert comedian, one of if not the most successful in Mexico. That being said, the film—which is very funny—ends up taking an unexpected turn away from humor. If someone were to say, “I want to go out and see a comedy tonight,” would you suggest your film?
I really wanted to make a comedy that touches your heart. When you go to movies to see a simple comedy, you’ll laugh, but nothing happens. Those memorable films like Life is Beautiful for example, are full of comedy, but have a lot of heart. You keep [those films] for the rest of your life. I really wanted to put a lot of heart, not just laughs, on the screen.

Was it always your intent to direct the film?
No, no. Absolutely not. I was [just planning on acting.] I was writing this film 12 years ago because I wanted to do a “tailored suit” movie. It was planned for me as an actor. After ten years of working on this film, going over and over the script, I realized the only person who knows the script best is me. That’s why I decided to direct it, and in the end it was worth it. Everything I dreamed of in the script is on the screen.

One of the big themes of the film is fear. Was directing the film your biggest fear going into the project?
I remember the first day I walked onto said. You can’t imagine how scared I was. But I didn’t tell anyone. I didn’t show my fear because I was the director and I needed to have the respect of all my staff. I had to stay strong, so I didn’t show my fear. It was really, really scary, the fact that I was directing the film, but especially that I was acting and directing at the same time. It was really hard.

Is your relationship with your movie daughter, Maggie (Peralta), reflective of your relationship with your real-life daughter?
Absolutely. Absolutely. A lot of the scenes are based on my life. My daughter was my first kid ever, and I was scared. I remember the first time I [found out] I was going to be a father, I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to be a father. I thought my career was going to end, my plans were going to end at that very moment. I didn’t want it. After two years I realized that fatherhood is amazing, the best present that life gave me. I put a lot of my personal life and relationships on the screen.

In the original script you had a son, not a daughter. When you made the change and cast Loreto, did the script change significantly?
We had to adapt a few things. Not that much. The first 11 years of writing the script, it was planned to be a boy. After all this time, we started looking for the actor to play the kid. It was really hard because it had to be a 6 to 7-year-old kid with blonde hair with blue eyes, a lot of charisma, and was able to speak perfect Spanish and perfect English. It was really hard to find [an actor.] After three or four months looking everywhere, we didn’t find [the kid,] so we opened up the option of [casting] a girl. We read the script again, and we realized that, with changes, it could be a girl. We didn’t find any [girl actors,] so I started to tweet that I needed a girl or boy with all of these [qualities.] Finally, I found Loreto through Twitter. It was really amazing.

Wow, so you used Twitter to cast one of the main roles!
Yeah! She’s not in show business at all.

Did Loreto ever meet your actual daughter?
Yeah! I have a picture of both of them. My daughter came on set one day, so I have a picture of my two daughters. (laughs)

One thing I really appreciated about the film is that Jessica Lindsey’s character (she plays Maggie’s mother in the film) is the main source of conflict, but she’s never demonized.
We worked a lot on the script. [In early versions,] you ended up hating her. We realized it was not healthy for the script to put her on that side. She was a complete villain, and you hated her. She really was a bitch. We changed some things. We gave some lines of hers to her girlfriend and made her character a little bit sweeter and a little more human. She’s a mother. She made a mistake. But she came back to fight for her daughter, and now she wants to be a good mother for the girl. It was difficult to find that balance.

The film’s ending is very, very powerful. Did you have that ending in mind when you started writing the script 12 years ago?
We realized we needed another twist to make [the ending] more powerful. There are a lot of twists at the end, but we needed a last one. I think we got it. It’s a killer. I think it’s one of the strengths of the film. The last five, ten minutes are really strong.

You do a lot of stunts in the film. Did you get hurt at all?
No, nothing important. Just a few scratches. I think it was important to do all of the stunts. It had to be me doing the stunts to make it real. I enjoyed it. I was really scared because my life was dependant on a very thin cable (laughs) but it was fun.