The only son of a Scandinavian missionary and a Mexican deacon whom both tried to convert one another, Nacho (Jack Black) is a man dreaming of greater things. Now a monk cooking hideous meals for the children living in an orphanage he was also raised in, the good-hearted man of God secretly fantasizes of entering the Mexican wrestling ring as a masked Lucha Libre fighter.

When the lovely Sister Encarnación (Ana de la Reguera) arrives in the monastery, Nacho decides to secretly pursue his dream in order to make both hers and the children’s days at the orphanage better. Teaming with rail thin homeless street fighter Esqueleto (Héctor Jiménez), the monk dawns the mask and tights of a luchadore. Soon Nacho is taking on (and losing to) some of the most famous wrestlers in all of Mexico, and although the paychecks are nice and the applause is intoxicating he can’t help but wonder if he’s fighting these battles for the orphans he says he loves or for the pride swelling deep within his breast.

From the warped family friendly minds of “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess and his co-writer wife Jerusha, couple with the bizarrely outlandish musings of “Chuck and Buck” auteur Mike White, comes the absurdly outlandish PG comedy “Nacho Libre.” Like both those wildly dissimilar pictures, this one is definitely an acquired taste almost certain to attain cult status amongst those looking for entertainments a good distance outside the norm.

The thing is, I’m just not too sure their outside the norm is quite the same as my outside the norm. While I appreciate the fact everyone is trying to do something distinctly different and original, I can’t exactly stand up and cheer for a comedy that only makes me laugh intermittently. Worse, for the life of me I still can’t decide if Hess, White and Black are celebrating the rich lucha libre (of which, in all honesty, I know nothing about) tradition or mocking it.

Granted, I’m not exactly sure it matters. Those who adored “Napoleon Dynamite” are going are going to eat this up with an oblong oversized wooden spoon. Hess directs in the same arch, deeply ironic, minimalist style he used to so much fan frenzy in his debut. For the most part, the director eschews making any grand, panoramic visual gestures, choosing to move the camera around as little as possible in order for his actor’s to make the most out of each comedic situation in whatever way they choose.

Sometimes this works. Many times it does not. Thankfully, when it does, “Nacho Libre” attains blissful comic buoyancy so many other far more frenetic and over-stylized comedies lack. For all my indifference there are moments here which made me laugh so loud and so hard I was almost ashamed by my outbursts. In fact, there is a beautiful delicacy to some of that’s fitfully charming, scenes of Nacho and Esqueleto training or of the former going off alone into the wilderness so insanely enchanting it’s impossible not to smile.

It goes without saying the key to almost all of this rests entirely with Black. You watch him bulldoze his way through performances in films like “King Kong” and you tend to forget just how good an actor the guy really is. While I’m upfront about not really getting this movie in its entirety, what I do comprehend is just how wondrous the actor in it is. For me, there is not greater moment than when Nacho’s secret is revealed and Black broke my heart, made me laugh and stole my breath all at the same time. It is a magnificently absurd moment, one that almost got my to cry tears of sadness intermixed with my fitful giggles, and my only wish was that Hess and company could have provided more scenes just like this one.

But they don’t. The film is prone to long dry stretches that kept me tapping my pen to my forehead in benign frustration. The supporting players do what they can (Jiménez proving to be an almost perfect Hardy to Black’s Laurel) but it is nowhere near enough. Maybe I’ll be in the minority, but for me “Nacho Libre” was unfortunately still two counts away from holding the headlock and completing the comedic pin.