This thriller (an unusual film genre in Brazilian cinema)is based on the brilliant best-seller from Brazil's current master novelist. It is quite a task to bring such an elliptical novel like this one to film. With its many philosophical themes, unusual scientific data, and a complex plot in a few time frames, the film adaptation would predictably be difficult to follow.
Yet it isn't. Even though most of the characters appear very differently in the two general time periods of the plot, a present one, and one a decade before, the action and the suspense flows very well.
I, for one, prefer an intelligent, timely urban Brazilian film to the "art house" favorites of late like "Central Station", "Me, You Them" and others. The fact is Brazil's population is 70% to 80% urban (one of the highest among large countries). Therefore, these films in urban settings are much more relevant to what is really happening in the country.
"Me, You, Them" and "Auto da Compadecida" may be very folksy and unusual films. But the vast majority of Brazil is not at all rural like India or China. Most Brazilian films released abroad suggest a Brazil predominantly rural, full of exotic villages as India or China. That just is not the case. Yes, Brazil has them, but they are over represented in its cinema for export.
May many more films like this one and "Tolerancia" and "Cronicamente Inviavel" (also excellent contemporary urban dramas) be released both within the country and abroad. It would not only educate more people in the more general reality of the country. It would also bring in a broad box office base and create a still inexistent wide audience which appreciates this kind of films.
This audience is turned off by the mere mention of "Brazilian movie" because of the recently exotic & rural nature of the films. This is not another "Brazilian movie." It is an exceptional film, and in my opinion, the best of 2000, along with the other two mentioned. See it if you can.
