Backlight

Backlight is a strange but wonderful film. First it's a 100% Portuguese production but it was filmed 100% in the United States. How strange is that? Very! Production decisions apart, the film works pretty well. The script is brilliant, the acting is excellent and the cinematography is beautiful, which makes Backlight my film of the year, and probably the best film I've seen in quite a few years. The film looks at the adversities of life and gambles with it. The characters are all interlinked in a very random way, it's a little like 6 degrees of separation. The film is set mostly in the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and the director keeps the shots wide revealing the magnificent backdrops and always moves the camera wisely to bring the picture alive. The characters are deep and insightful, each has a serious problem to face up to and the subtle, naturalistic way their issues play out make for truly emotional cinema. This is not a film about heroes, it's a film about trying to make the right choices when your back is to the wall, and the doubts that go with this. Great uplifting movie, especially if you are and have been with depression. I think this film could be a great alternative to Prozac! : )

It's of no surprise that Fernando Fragata's Backlight made the list of the Top 10 most profitable Portuguese films by the Portuguese Film Institute. Backlight is without a doubt a great film. It also turned out to be a very controversial film, simply because not a lot of films like this come out of Portugal. Despite the fact that the film was shot entirely in the USA and is in English Language, it's still a Portuguese film, because the writer/director/producer Fernando Fragata is Portuguese.

I have seen many films with interlocking stories and about a lot of different people and their lives, but rarely we find it as emotional and well-made as this. The plot was iffy to me at first, but after the first 10 minutes I got really into it. Backlight really surprised me in the way that actually none of the characters know each other at first. The screenplay was very clever to just have like a glimpse into these people's lives. I thought it made the story unpredictable, and when the heavy parts come, you are really into it and I found myself totally absorbed. The characters are very fleshed out making you invest emotionally in each one with no effort.

The performances all around were brilliant, but to me the stand-out was Skyler Day. I thought her story was the strongest, weirdest and sometimes funniest at the same time, and it was really well written. I thought her acting was phenomenal, and I think she is predestined to have a successful career. Joaquim de Almeida and Scott Bailey were very good too, in a more subtle way. I thought the direction and cinematography was phenomenal. The grand finale has one of the most amazing and beautiful slow-motion sequences in cinema history.

First off, the film has an interesting screenplay. The scenes in the Mohave Desert are striking. That said, it's difficult to understand the actors speaking during the film, with the constant barrage of the overly loud soundtrack! So, very disappointing sound engineering. Needless to say, it makes trying to watch the film very annoying. Another thing to note, was the angry mom. I felt it was acted poorly, with no help from the script she had to read.

Skipped through a few minutes of it. Looks like total boring crap. Hilarious fake reviews give it a 10. The script? Brilliant! The acting...excellent! Sure thing. Maybe actually make something good so the reviews don't need to be fake. Check it out if you still want to.

I read some reviews about Backlight and some of them are really bad. Bad in a way that they aren't argued enough. I think that all the people should have an opinion but the opinions must have facts and things with meaning. That's why I think that I have a few things to say... First of all, Backlight is a fantastic movie and If you have some doubts about what I said, please, watch the movie again and try to understand it. Watch a movie is not just see what is in the screen, is see something through the screen! A message to the world. Cinema is an art that send messages in a single way. Through sound, image and, the most important, a story. The soundtrack of Backlight is amazing. Please, listen with attention. Santos e Pecadores, Nuno Maló... You don't know them? Well sometimes its good, because I know some "artists" and I would prefer don't know them. The movie don't have special effects like Transformers or War of the Worlds? Yes, its a fact! But I have a very good explanation for that: Money! Please remember that Fernando Fragata is Portuguese and don't have so many sponsors like Spielberg. He made the movie with some help but, essentially alone. Yes, alone... Can you imagine what is make a movie in these conditions? OK, we all have difficulties in life. I just wrote this for you understand that, like Fernando Fragata said "I didn't make the movies that I would like, but I did the movies that were possible to me". You want throw a stone for that? Please, be my guest, but remember that a movie is much more than that. Art is about passion, feelings. The story of Backlight is really good! The way that all the things fit until the final apotheosis is brilliant! The meaning in the objects are so amazing. Don't have a meaning but, the beauty is that somethings in life don't have a meaning. You just feel... You just listen some voices that are saying to you to go ahead. Also the GPS story is a true story of a women that died in a car crash and the husband took the gps and went the last address. The last address was a orphanage. The women was infertile and was thinking in adopt a child. All the story of Backlight is about real stories that Fernando saw. Is not an empty story with no meaning. Is something with a little magic (the magic in the objects) that make us to believe in things like that. You don't need a good camera or be in amazing places to make a good movie, you just need to have passion! A good Story! To make people forget their lives or, maybe, thinking in life and in human condition. OK, I like special effects and good monsters and wars but, first of all, I like a good Story! A meaning. If you are looking for some crap with famous actors, amazing effects, no meaning, poorly argued and an empty story like a cliché, please don't see this. See a Hollywood crap. Otherwise if you are looking for a good movie, with so many passion, meaning and a brilliant story, well, then you must see Backlight.