“Buenos Nachos!” greets Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) as he meets a group of Mexicans once across the boarder.

This language gaffe and general cultural ineptitude follows Welbach and other Americans around in The Mexican. Humorous consequences set the mood for this romantic comedy starring Pitt, Julia Roberts, James Gandolfini and directed by Gore Verbinski.

The film brings together the long-awaited teaming of beautiful people Roberts and Pitt, and the results are a neurotic romance involving an ancient pistol, kidnapping and a bunch of El Caminos.

Jerry Welbach is a hapless innocent bagman for an illegalearms dealer and freelance collector. Samantha (Julia Roberts), is his strong-headed, often-neglected girlfriend who demands that he go straight. Pitt wants out of the racket but has to do one last job or he’ll be swimming with the fishes.

His job is to go to Mexico, meet up with a shady character, named Beck, who has a gun they want and bring the two back to his

soon-to-be-released-from-jail boss, Margoles.

This is simple enough, except Samantha dumps Jerry when he takes the assignment and leaves for Vegas where they were supposed to get married.

Jerry finds the gun and Beck quite easily, but the plot thickens. It turns out this gun, called the Mexican, is an invaluable antique wanted by everyone from the natives to Jerry’s boss.

The gun also carries with it a curse, it was made as a gift for a nobleman to wed a peasant girl, and a great legend surrounds it.

On top of that, Leroy, Gandolfini, a hired hit man, kidnaps Samantha to ensure that Jerry brings back the gun without any fowl-ups.

However, the curse seems to be real, as Beck dies in a fluke accident outside a bar, Jerry’s rented El Camino is car-jacked with Beck, the gun, and his ticket home inside.

He is stranded in the middle of Mexico with nothing but his limited grasp of Spanish and the knowledge that his future existence depends on getting back that gun.

Do not be fooled, this movie is not completely lighthearted. Wonderfully deep dialogue, especially between Leroy and Sam, is sprinkled throughout the film. The side stories and character development keep you stimulated, and many surprise developments, including a cameo from the man who plays the mysterious Margoles make this romantic comedy a little bit serious.

The three principle characters, Jerry, Sam and Leroy, although rarely all together during the movie, make us care about what will happen to this pistol. Gandolfini is great as a hit man with a soft side as he tries to play relationship counselor to Sam.

His character takes on a few surprising dimensions, and there is great chemistry between him and Roberts as they both learn important lessons from each other in the most unlikely setting.

Roberts’ portrayal of Sam as the high-maintenance girlfriend, stuck in the middle of a situation she neither asked for nor understands is very convincing.

She flexes her acting muscles throughout the film, and shows us the sensitive strong-willed and intelligent woman we saw in Erin Brockovich. Brad Pitt is hilarious throughout the entire movie.

His character really has no clue, all he knows is that he loves Samantha and that the pistol needs to be taken care of.

He comes off as a foolish American, many times slaughtering the Spanish language, acting without thinking and behaving like a spoiled child as more and more things don’t go his way. His character matures throughout the film and the end results are a credit to great acting.

The music in this film is great. A mariachi-meets-electric-guitar theme follows the characters wherever they go, and you keep waiting for Pitt to walk into a scene wearing a sombrero.

A great score to go along with exotic shots of the Mexican frontier is almost like watching a PR video for vacationing in Mexico, although it does include a lot of back-alley shots.

The film is a little long a times. Certain scenes make you feel like you have been sitting in the theater a little too long. The movie also has some loose ends that do not get tied up, and a sudden exit of a key character will raise a few eyebrows.

However, this is a romantic comedy, and all’s well that ends well. That is why we see this kind of movie.

Good times, famous faces on screen, a humorous story and a few surprises make this a film to see. B+