Review: ‘Nosotros los Nobles’ an upbeat dramedy

The scheme at the center of “Nosotros los Nobles” is a flimsy one at best: When Mexican construction mogul Germán Noble (Gonzalo Vega) tires of his grown children’s spoiled antics, he fakes an embezzlement scheme and “freezes” their assets. Party boy Javier (Luis Gerardo Méndez), princess Bárbara (the Amanda Peet-esque Karla Souza) and hipster Charlie (Juan Pablo Gil) all go into “hiding” in a rundown fixer-upper and must get real jobs for the first time in their lives — presumably where they could easily follow their family company’s perfectly legal and solvent activities in the papers or through friends.

There’s an unsettlingly casual attitude toward sexual harassment at their new gigs, but of course it’s funny and cool that Charlie is forced to enter a sexual relationship with his cougar boss to stay on as a bank teller (as opposed to the upsetting catcalls Bárbara must endure as a cantina waitress). But his situation actually leads to a quite tender, if awkward, conversation about sex between generations.

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Germán, it turns out, has as much to learn as his kids do about his culpability in their behavior. Co-writer/director Gary Alazraki’s first feature may sound formulaic, what with the characters’ predictable discoveries about what’s really important and who really are their friends, but the performances are genuine and the narrative beats land solidly for a perfectly enjoyable feel-good dramedy.

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‘Nosotros los Nobles’

MPAA rating: PG-13 for some sexual content and language

Running time: 1 hour, 48 minutes. In Spanish with English subtitles

Playing: In general release