Lighthearted ‘Puerto Ricans in Paris’ a mixed bag

If you judge a movie based on its straightforward title, “Puerto Ricans in Paris” delivers precisely what it promises.

The Puerto Ricans in question are New York City detectives Luis (Luis Guzman) and his partner Eddie (Edgar Garcia). The duo are the undercover stars of the department, whose most recent gig is taking down one of those counterfeit designer handbag operations permeating New York’s lower East Side, preying on unsuspecting (give me a break) tourists who think an authentic Louis Vuitton satchel can sell for $200 from a sleazy shop’s backroom. (Not so funny is the fact that these real-life global bootleg operations cost high-end designers millions of dollars each year).

Their fine detective work does not go unnoticed by the arrival of the French: a fashion conglomerate head named Vincent (Frederic Anscombre) and the toast of the Parisian fashion world, a designer named Colette (the charming Alice Taglioni). The pair seek the services of the detectives after the prototype of Colette’s Next Big Thing, a sensational new handbag, is stolen, and the thieves threaten to flood the market with fakes if they are not paid a ransom.

Sacre bleu!

Luis and Eddie are off to Paris to track down the culprits and get a $300,000 reward if they succeed. Can police officers even accept a reward? I digress.

The detectives (who also happen to be brothers-in-law) arrive in Paris (though budget constraints forced a good deal of the overseas filming to be done in Prague), and what ensues is a lighthearted romp that can’t decide if it wants to be sweet or funny or a buddy picture or a comic whodunnit.

Turns out the film is a little bit of all of those genres and not enough of any one of them. There are sweet subplots involving Eddie and his wife Gloria (Rosie Perez, who could have used more screen time) and Luis and his girlfriend Vanessa (Rosario Dawson, also in an underused capacity), who wants to take their relationship to the altar, much to the chagrin of the wannabe ladies’ man Luis. The buddy pic finds our heroes going through a series of disguises and missteps that test their friendship and their partnership. Scenes of their quiet conversations are gems.

The whodunnit, with its standard-issue suspects, unfortunately is formulaic (you can see the thief coming from a mile away). The funny, and there are some truly funny lines along the way, needed more of a punch from Ian Edelman and Neel Shah’s effective but uneven script.

Guzman and Garcia (reunited from HBO’s “How to Make It in America”) are a joy to watch, and deliver their lines with just enough nuance to make them truly endearing; sometimes it works, others not so much. The film’s sizzling score is served well by Highland Park’s Jonathan Sadoff (composer) and the presence of Armondo Christian Perez (a.k.a. Pitbull) as executive producer (he also contributes one of the dozens of fabulous tunes for the soundtrack).

The result is a film that demands nothing more than 82 breezy minutes of your time. And sometimes it’s just nice to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and take in a cop film that features nary a super-special-effects-generated explosion, no impossible car chase scenes over the rooftops of Paris, no foul-mouthed dialogue to prove who’s tougher than whom. No, this one’s exactly what it says it is: two Puerto Ricans in Paris. Just wish they’d had more of an adventure to share while they were visiting.

★★1⁄2

Focus World presents a film directed by Ian Edelman. Written by Edelman and Neel Shah. Rated R (for language including some sexual references). Running time: 82 minutes. Opening Friday at AMC Showplace Cicero 14 and on demand.