The Trace We Leave Behind

In Rio de Janeiro, Dr. João (Rafael Cardoso) is happily married with the teacher Leila (Leandra Leal), who is pregnant, and has a bureaucratic work. João is assigned to secretly transfer the patients from an old hospital that is administrated by his friend Dr. Heitor (Jonas Bloch) and will be closedown permanently by the governor. João meets his former schoolmate Dr. Olivia (Cláudia Abreu) in the hospital and stumbles upon a girl in a bed that he promises to give assistance and treatment. After the troubled transference of the patients to another hospital, João looks for the girl but does not find her. He becomes obsessed to discover what happened to the girl and makes a tragic discovery.

"O Rastro" is an uneven supernatural Brazilian film that could have been better and better. The cinematography and art direction are excellent, using the location of an old wing of the bankrupted hospital Beneficência Portuguesa in creepy scenes. The cast is also great, with top-notch Brazilian actresses and actors. The storyline is reasonable and could have used ambiguity when João becomes obsessed to find the girl. Unfortunately the sound is awful and there is no subtitle to understand many inaudible dialogues. But the worst is the messy screenplay that entwines politics with supernatural and horror and never works. The poor development of unpleasant characters is also a weak point. In the end, "O Rastro" is a movie with great potential but absolutely forgettable. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "O Rastro" ("The Trail")