That notion of "If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there" might work in real life, but when it comes to
movies it doesn't work all that greatly. Amazingly confusing, lost in itself and without almost nothing to show, this film end up being a
huge let down as it has as one of its producers the great Brazilian filmmaker Kléber Mendonça Filho ("Aquarius", "Bacurau"), with a story
filmed in his beloved Recife, and a huge and rare opportunity was missed as this production is a worldy one (Brazil, Argentina, Germany),
and when cinema of the world gets connected you can always expect something unique on the screen. Not this time, though.
"Sleep with Your Eyes Open" seems to follow such idea of lost directions, as the lead character becomes a unusual kind
of citizen of the world where she doesn't have, neither feel, the benefits of travelling around different nations. Kai (Liao Kai Ro) is a
Taiwanese girl who moves from Taiwan to Argentina and later to Brazil where she goes to spend a holiday
with an aunt that conducts a business revolving the exploitation of Chinese illegal immigrants. She doesn't speak Portuguese, but manages
to get acquainted with a shop vendor (Wang Shin-Hong), who disappears while tracking down who stole his phone; the friendly Leo (Nahuel Pérez
Biscayart, from the amazing "120 BPM") who works for her aunt along with the other Chinese men, all living crammed inside of a lux apartment.
In between their routine of work, some arrivals and departures, Kim writes her thoughts and feelings on postcards that are destined
to the missing vendor (or maybe to some family member in Taiwan or Argentina) but she never sends them. She keeps them as a journal, reflecting
on how she doesn't understand Brazilian people, their food and culture, the usual cultural clashes one has while living abroad. Must say I didn't
like those moments, but they didn't angered me as it could - it's just boring talks and not once there's a word of praise for anything
(but I think she liked to drink caipirinha).
Anyway, there's no story here. It's a series of confusing, jumpy sequences where she connects with her own kind, they all dislike their
situation (the men for obvious reasons, as they are exploited and keep on dreaming on moving back to China or Taiwan), and there's never a
moment where you can say that Kim is enjoying her vacation or whatever she came to do in Brazil. Her aunt is barely there, yet she's the one
who runs everything, since her husband is sick. And the characters are so stranded in their own pitiful reality that when loads of money
fly out from an upper apartment, they don't run away to get it.
Was there any relevant thing to show or say about illegal immigrants? Not really. The junction of such real scenario with a person
travelling alone, trying to find some meaning to life, didn't work. The series of unusual events, some explained and others not so much, is
a recurring thing on many art films lately, and here it was just weird to watch. They weren't funny, neither dramatically interesting. It was
mostly annoying, cryptic and weren't worthy of reflection.
It might had work better if it had a sense of direction, some coherence in its
storytelling where audiences could connect with something, make them feel something rather than a neutral state of mind that doesn't go
nowhere. And there's so many real elements to it that could be worked that in the end it was a wasted opportunity. Leo character, for instance.
The only character I was invested and curious with, yet he was too brief on scene (hated the godawful bleached hair they gave to Biscayart). Like Kim, he
doesn't belong there, but he knows where to go and how to act.
This was lost on me, despite some enjoyable moments here and there. It was mostly erratic. 4/10.
