Rastros na Areia

I feel a little weirded out for giving a downer review to this movie since somehow there were some good things about it despite its awful simplicity and heavily cliched ideas. However, its presentation is what makes of this a very embarassing and poor work which most of time is either laughable or filled with cringeworthy moments. Yet I can't criticize in a harsh the message presented in it since it contains many positive elements, and to some people it can be easy to digest and even say it's a realistic story.

In "Rastros na Areia" ("Tracks on the Sand") singer Dalvan plays Davi, a poor man with a sad traumatic past after his father (Maurício do Valle) walk out on him and his mom, taking his sister with him, and as growing life was a series of unfortunate events where he had no control about anything. After his mother's passing, now a grown man, he leaves the country and moves to the big city to find his family and also find some job. But as unqualified man with little education, he struggles in the big city, finding some company (a roommate who finds him a job and a country girl of whom he's very fond of but like him she's lost in confusion).

However, the story isn't simply told in such chronological way since there are interruptions back and forth, and from the beginning we see Davi chatting with Jesus on a lonely beach. That's actually the motif of everything: in this surreal meeting Davi is questioning everything that happened in his life, firmly believing that Jesus abandoned him since nothing good ever came his way.

Also interrupting the story progress comes the musical numbers performed by Davi/Dalvan, which are all bad to see and for a brief moment I was hoping his luck would turn out for the better since Davi is such a failure at work that having his singing talents discovered by a colleague would prompt him to take a chance in the musical business. But the movie doesn't take this easy route and stays away from becoming like the classic "O Ébrio". But the gas station number is terribly executed with him singing for a crowd, playing the guitar all alone yet we hear many other instruments in the background without anyone playing them. Really laughable.

I don't see anything wrong with the story but I did felt bothered by the acting, very cheap all the way through except for one or two performances (Maurício as the dad is amazing but he was a true cinema veteran so he couldn't go wrong). Dalvan has great singing/writing abilities despite playing on a genre of which I don't follow, but as an actor is quite problematic - the scene where he's trying to sleep after a hard-working day at the construction site, with his body aching everywhere is hilarious. I just lost it. Speaking of the construction site moment, it was a very erratic and annoying sequence with all the old workers pretending to be Davi's bosses and they kept messing around him, like they complain he's not working yet they're the ones pulling pranks or yelling at him out of the blue.

As said, the presentation of things destroy the movie's credibility and it's quite a pity since there were some good things about it despite the Frank Capra feels where a character gets a chance to take another look at his life due to the magic forces of universe. It's tacky but it works in the world of movies, it makes ourselves to exhamine things with a less critical look and search deep down our hearts if we are suffering all that much while going through life. To some, those moments come through prayer, to others maybe psychoanalysis or some deep conversation with a loved one, family or friend, or even a total stranger who just happened to see our moment of crisis.

Sure, the movie presents a logical explanation as how come Davi got to meet Jesus but it's something that appears way late in the plot.

To end it all: I liked the message just didn't appreciate it the way it was told. It might work best with less demanding audiences. 3/10.