Hard Labor

One more good movie directed by duo Marco Dutra and Juliana Rojas, once more traveling and combining multiple genres in an innovative manner. Hard Labor is both a family drama and a film on labor and class, with minor elements of humor, and that is tuning itself increasingly a horror/thriller.

Brazilian drama with a strong horror influence, 'Trabalhar Cansa' (2011) stands out for its introspective rhythm and powerful message about the job market, unemployment, and reflections on the middle class. The plot relies on symbolism and supernatural concepts to construct a critique in the subtext, featuring a strong performance by Helena Albergaria in the lead role.

A dense atmosphere and suspenseful climate permeate the work, using few explicit supernatural elements, making the experience palpable and unsettling. Reflecting contemporary trends, 'Trabalhar Cansa' resembles productions from A24, marked by dramatic intensity and a conceptual script. The film demonstrates the viability of horror in Brazilian cinema, achieving success through realism.

While the initial moments of the piece are captivating and relatable to the average Brazilian, the movie is not able to develop a consistent storyline. The ending is one of the worst I have seen. Moreover, many characters lack development.

This movie is slower than an European art-house movie. As a horror, it doesn't scare one bit. The dialogue is stiff and the story is very vague. The actual "scary" parts would not scare a 8 year old child that pees in the bed every day and cannot watch the Teletubes cause the songs are too sinister. I could spend two hours just watching my bedroom wall and be more entertained. Watch if you're using drugs.

Hard Labor is an extremely straightforward drama about a family struggling with finding work and paying the bills while also opening a new business. Don't let the genre categories on the internet fool you, there's no horror or mystery to be had here, other than the horror of making a living in a difficult job market and the mystery of where you'll find the money to pay the bills. They try to weave in some unusual things going on, but most of that adds nothing to the film. I believe these little dark moments are an attempt at weaving a bit of metaphor into the plot, but that's not really necessary to further the story. On the one hand, I have to compliment the writers/directors on some of the cliched choices they didn't add into the film. There were a few times I thought things would go down an annoying path as the characters made awful life choices, but this simply wasn't that type of movie. On the other hand, I have to criticize the writers/directors because they didn't have much of anything happen in the movie. It's a bland and dull journey that focuses on depressing drama in a way that completely turned me off. I was ready to go along for the ride with Hard Labor, and found myself invested in the story they were telling for part of the runtime, but it was far from a thrill-ride.