Luis Fonsi Heads to Netflix With Latino Rom-Com "Say a Little Prayer"
Luis Fonsi Netflix rom-com is bringing a different kind of love song.
The Puerto Rican superstar, best known globally for the record-shattering “Despacito,” stars opposite Vannessa Vasquez in Say a Little Prayer, the Latino-led romantic comedy arriving on Netflix September 3. The film also features Jackie Cruz, Vivian Lamolli, Mexican entertainment legend Angélica María, Chris Kattan, Tatanka Means and Pepe Serna.
Directed by Patrick Perez Vidauri and written by Nancy De Los Santos-Reza, the 103-minute film centers on three best friends who recite an old prayer to St. Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, hoping a little divine intervention might help them find true love. Naturally, their romantic lives become considerably more complicated.
For Fonsi, Say a Little Prayer represents a notable expansion of a career overwhelmingly associated with music. He plays Rafael Reza, an art curator who enters the orbit of Vasquez’s Adela, an ambitious San Antonio gallery owner caught between her professional aspirations, family expectations and the possibility of romance.
But there is another reason the film deserves attention: Say a Little Prayer puts contemporary Latino characters at the center of an unapologetically mainstream American romantic comedy. The story isn’t constructed around immigration, crime or the familiar Hollywood stereotypes that have too often defined Latino representation. Instead, its characters are professionals, friends, lovers and family members navigating the universally messy business of finding the right person.
That was very much intentional. De Los Santos-Reza, whose credits include producing the 1997 Jennifer Lopez film Selena, developed the story from a real-life experience involving her own grandmother giving her a St. Anthony prayer card to help her find a husband. The film was ultimately set and shot in San Antonio, weaving the city and its Latino culture directly into the story.
After receiving a limited theatrical release in November 2024 and subsequently moving to digital platforms, Say a Little Prayer now gets something potentially much bigger: the reach of Netflix.
For a warm, culturally specific Latino rom-com built around friendship, faith and a little supernatural matchmaking, September 3 could provide the movie with its largest audience yet.
And for Fonsi, it’s another reminder that there may be considerably more to his Hollywood chapter than “Despacito.”
Comments