Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The House of Flowers: The Movie’ on Netflix, a Loony Reprise of the Acclaimed, Now-Defunct Mexican Comedy Series

Netflix’s The House of Flowers: The Movie brings everyone back from the hit series of the same name (minus the “the movie” part of course) for another go-round — and another is-it-or-is-it-not-a-telenovela debate. Note how things that tend to wriggle around easy categorization also tend to be very good, which is why the Mexican series, which ran for three seasons before wrapping in 2020, received numerous accolades for toeing the line between soapy melodrama and dark comedy. Without spoiling much, the movie may offer a bit of closure for fans of the highly dysfunctional de la Mora family’s wild escapades.

THE HOUSE OF FLOWERS: THE MOVIE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The de la Mora children’s beloved nanny, Delia (Maya Mazariegos), is aging and ailing. Ailing to the point that doctors have told her to contact her next of kin. She opens an old address book: “De la Mora,” it reads in looping cursive, followed by the names Elena (Aislinn Derbez), Julian (Dario Yazbek Bernal) and Paulina (Cecilia Suarez). And hey, you know those people, because if you’re watching The House of Flowers: The Movie before The House of Flowers, then time has very likely begun to flow in reverse, possibly because Superman is flying around the planet really really fast.

Flashback a few decades: Young Elena and Paulina push a lunchbox into a hidey hole in their house and cover it with a piece of cut-out baseboard. This is the very large house where they grew up, a house so lavishly overdecorated, you just want to mow down all the garish 1980s brass fixtures, floral patterns and puffy furniture with an uzi. Their parents, Virginia (Isabel Burr) and Ernesto (Tiago Correa) have large hair, as was the style at the time. So what’s in the lunchbox? An old treasure, no doubt, possibly something to do with Agustin’s (Paco Rueda) culpability in the death of Paco, which we saw in season three.

And it’s Delia’s dying wish that they retrieve the lunchbox. Easier said than done, since the house and everything in it was purchased by a woman who has no proclivity to let the de la Rosa siblings in so they can poke around behind the baseboards, and in fact thinks so highly of the contents of her bedroom, she installs a series of laser tripwires so complicated, they’d make Ethan Hunt give up and go home. Good thing she’s throwing a big party, so Elena, Paulina, Julian and Julian’s partner Diego (Juan Pablo Medina) can implement a heistlike plan — concocted by Paulina’s s.o. Maria Jose (Paco Leon) — that includes sneaking around and wearing disguises and such. Meanwhile, in the mucho rococo 1980s, Virginia and Ernesto implement a little plan of their own that involves sneaking around at a wedding and trying to coax a confession out of Agustin. As expected, both schemes go as smoothly as gravel in your vanilla shake.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Oh, there’s a bunch of these: Breaking Bad: The Movie That Wasn’t Quite as Good as the Show, Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie That Wasn’t Quite as Good as the Show and Deadwood: The Movie That Wasn’t Quite as Good as the Show (But Was Still Pretty Damn Good) are among the franchises that brought back original TV-series casts for feature-length encores.

Performance Worth Watching: Suarez received heaps of acclaim for her portrayal of the highly eccentric Paulina, who speaks with the exquisitely perfect syllabic enunciation of a person who’s lost several of her marbles. Par for the course for THOFTM, then; her mannerisms render the character an encyclopedia of quirks that we could spend all week interpreting.

Memorable Dialogue: Julian scorches his sister: “How did you climb up there? You probably dated a rock climber. Elena, your sluttiness has taken you so far.”

Sex and Skin: Some bare butt and a glimpse of sideboob during a quick nookie scene.

Our Take: Note that THOFTM features very little of the title flower shop and the gaggle of trans women who run it, and none of the de la Rosa family’s muy scandaloso brothel. But it has plenty of the over-the-top scenarios that made the series a prickly satire of melodramatic telenovelas. And it spends a lot of time with Elena, Paulina and Julian, who have to work together in a functional manner that seems antithetical to their usual highly defective dynamic.

So the movie is novel in that sense. It reprises the mingling of flashback and current-day narratives of the series’ third season; the scenes set in the ’80s don’t carry quite as much weight or subtle comedy, but there’s enough BEIGE in the color palate to inspire allergic conniptions in those of us who recall the era all too well. The movie is winkingly sordid, deadpan-funny and, in the end, earnestly sentimental enough to be satisfying for fans yearning for a little more time with the ludicrous de la Rosas.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The House of Flowers aficionados will certainly appreciate this (apparent) curtain call by their beloved characters.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream The House of Flowers: The Movie on Netflix