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Reviews
2 Filhos de Francisco: A História de Zezé di Camargo & Luciano (2005)
A movie with no self pity!
This could have been your typical poor boys work hard and become famous type story, fortunately it was so much more. It was about wanting, and fearing, and being obsessed, and being hurt, and taking risks, and finally the eternal theme of father and sons. A father in love with music, with fierce innocent childlike eyes and children who fell in love with their father's dream with innocent adult all knowing eyes. It was about the hardship of poverty, but it was about it's happiness as well. It was about a crazy man, with a crazy dream who could have gone wrong ... and half way did, but also didn't! I was surprised by the minimalist acting, so much was said with the eyes, and it was in the eyes that parents and children communicated their fears, desires, wants, madness, hurt feelings. Big brown crazy childlike eyes. The children were off course, very cute as kids can be, but the adult actors were very much there, and it's to their capacity that does big brown boy eyes not only didn't make them fade away, but played into the more universal theme of the movie! Francisco, the father, is an incredible presence (and what an incredible good actor has portrayed him). That this movie was named after him and not his successful sons is to the credit of an honesty not easy to find in the biopic world. It is in part what made this movie much so much more!
Nueve reinas (2000)
Grifter genre
What I find interesting about this movie is that it gives you no easy way out. The ending shows an ambiguity not usually present in the genre, at least if you compare it to the US versions of this genre. If you compare it with Matchstick Man or The Grifters, and the sanitized Hollywood versions, The sting: all of them seem to take a clear moral view of the characters, one way or another. I can't quite remember House of Games, but I do believe in all of them we are in a world apart and individuals make a choice between a "moral" way of living and one in which the "con game" rules. I don't think this is the case for Nueve Reinas, the ending does not give you a clear guideline for judging the characters, you have to make your own interpretation. On the one hand Marcos is not at all likable and becomes the fooler fooled. But Juan, who we are happy to learn, fools him, I'm not sure is any less of a fooler, just a more "natural talent." That ambiguity in the ending I don't think is completely apparent to all. The fact that Juan gives his, in the end we find out, girl-friend the ring he stole with Marcos, from an old lady and a ring that was a family memento ... a minor detail maybe, but a cruel act typical of the "con" artist who takes advantaged of an old lady's solitude (not a pretty picture). And are we sure that he does this for his dad, or is that just a "con" the picture create ... and is the girl friend just out to swindle the brother. In the end Juan, the guy with the honest face, has learned all to well how to "survive", and I wonder if in the end that is not what we are looking at in this movie. The ending does not give you all the answers, and maybe that is what makes this such an interesting movie and one that can be seen more than once
Spanglish (2004)
Span ... what?
This could have been an interesting movie, exploring the problems that arise from cultural contact, but that are relevant to any human relationship. Unfortunately, it failed and probably because it did not dare to go where it wanted to go. It had truly interesting moments that promised to explore the difficulty of connecting across language, cultures ... but more importantly "all too human" barriers. Instead it wrapped up it's story line exploiting every single cliché in the book: the ones about so-called "Latin" women, about "Anglo" males and "Anglo" females. That these stereotypical views persist is a tribute to the thickness of the human brain to even recognize a "problem". The "Latin" mother is portrayed as selfless, wanting what is "natural" -- that the daughter be like her mother. Was that any different from the portrayal of the neurotic "Anglo" mother that wanted her daughter to be more like her as well. And what to say about the "whimp" of the "Anglo" father who can see the problem, but does nothing to deal with it but be the sad little victim of these all powerful women. He is the "good guy" ... how trite can you get. I was however surprised by Adam Sandler's acting, he proves with this movie that he has it in him to be more than the "moron" he has played in the past. On the other hand the women were so over the top, and I am sure that they were asked to be over the top it was quite unbearable. Cloris Leachman was very good as well, but besides these two performances,there is little to recommend in this "filled with stereotypes" and cowardly film. Wish they had dared to go to some more interesting places ... or at least as far as recognized the difficulty of the mother-daughter relationship in any language, but more so when you have to do it in Spanglish.
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
wish I had seen the movie before I read the book
I loved the biography written by Sylvia Nasar and I must say that the screenplay could have trusted the audience with more of the complex story written in this work. I liked the visual approach of the movie giving us an insight that was not available in the book, a novel perspective and an interesting solution, but I think that, as it was stated in the New York Times, the audience could have been trusted with the complexity of the situation. The portrayal of Nasar is so much more intense, and some much more realistic. I liked the movie, but would recommend that anybody who sees it read the real thing afterwards in a wonderfully written biography that shows you that life with a genious, with madness, with a mad academic world and in a paranoid era was very very far from the hollywood treatment of it. The acting by Crowe and the visual idea of getting us into that world was wonderful, but I hope that there is in the future more trust that an audience can deal with much more complexity. Read the New York time review, it really hits the mark.