"O Invasor" is a clear case of an overrated picture and I don't use that word lightly or all that frequently. Decades of hearing about this
movie only made me aprehensive and cautious about wanting to see it and when I finally did, I was shocked and amazingly disappointing with it since I got
nothing from the experience. Through the years I kept hearing about its "importance", the many awards given to it, the countless highlights about the film's
soundtrack, acting, specially from newcomers Sabotagem and Titãs frontman Paulo Miklos, so many great things were said about this film and then...I probably
missed something.
Beto Brant's film doesn't show us anything new. The story of two contractors (Marco Ricca and Alexandre Borges) who call up the services of a hired gun
(Miklos, amazing!) to eliminate a third partner in their company in order to approve some big project of which we don't exactly how profitable it can be for
them. All is done, the man gets killed with his wife but the killer doesn't leave the guys alone: he wants to work for the company in whatever they do and
little by little he gets immersed in their lives, the company's work and also begins a relationship with the young daughter (Mariana Ximenes) of the deceased
taking her into wild parties. It gets insanely weird when one of the business partners decide to kill the other and paranoia sets in within this group of
people, that also brings a random lover (Malu Mader) to one of them.
What could be an accessible story with dark humor and some minor twists is turned into an incoherent mess that doesn't keep the audience engaged, most of
the time we are lost in how Brant and his writers presents things (which includes the book's author Marçal Aquino, adaptating his own project even though he didn't even had an
ending for the book so he improvised for the movie THEN finished the novel). Many things are not explained, the tension doesn't build in the way it is expected - I was
hoping for the Miklos character to go insane each moment went by but instead is the insecure character played by Ricca who ends up in a journey of self-loathing
and confusion when he finally gets a gun. Why bothering in using realistic elements if nothing will ring true when things start to unfold? If the idea was to
create a chaotic scenario with this intruder guy ruining everyone's lives at least some form of humor could be brought on and let the danger appear with
frequency.
It's not 100% wrong but there were times when I thought nothing had salvation in this thing. But there's some good and memorable things here. The real
invader, outsider of this movie was the perfect choice for the title role. Paulo Miklos was the best choice for Anisio, the odd man in control of everything.
He is quirky, strange, menacing and he always appear when he's not expected. One could give to this role to any established actor out there and it would be just
another fine performance, but having a non-actor capturing your attention with just his presence and a deadly look in his eyes, then you have something special
(even though in one quick shot he looks at the camera, surprised to be in the shot and I wonder why Brant left the scene with this goof). Miklos scenes with
Mariana are among the best, even though I don't buy much of their relationship and how it develops. Bottom of line, the acting is all good but the movie is so
erratic and confusing that the experience is already ruined.
What's so great and so important about "O Invasor"? I don't know. I didn't find anything. There's not a worth seeing story here, nothing is new here,
and there wasn't even a decent conclusion to atest we actually had seen something outstanding. Trust me, there are countless of better crime dramas out there,
and countless better Brazilian films out there. This is not one of them. 4/10.
