It was one of the good Portuguese movies I saw at this edition of Motelx, and there were some I haven't seen yet, but that seemed quite appealing to me. I had to make choices.
What is certain is that Portuguese horror cinema, in a very broad sense of the term, is on the rise and made itself well noticed in the festival. Which is excellent.
The Pianist is an intelligent, sensitive, and strongly psychological take on the mourning of a stable yet abusive relationship. Great performances from (almost) all the actors, with obvious highlights for the trio of protagonists:
Teresa Tavares (how this girl has evolved, now a fully grown woman; being from the same generation, I think my comment is not offensive), her best role in her artistic career so far (from what I have seen),
Miguel Borges, an incredible actor, of the same caliber as the late Nuno Melo and Nuno Lopes;
And the newcomer in feature films, the "kid" Gonçalo Almeida, is definitely going to have a promising future.
There are things that were not achieved as well despite the good quality.
The first in horror/thriller element, the predictability that the scene with the policemen, even before the middle of the film, gives or rather reveals for later final revelation. Or maybe it's just me watching too many 'true crime' docs... (Sorry for the lack of better prose, but it's not easy when you want to avoid 'spoilers' and write on your second language).
The second the presence of dreadfull and snob Catarina Furtado. Catrina Furtado plays the role of Catarina Furtado (it always does) acting as a psychologist. Short scene and almost irrelevant, thanks to the old and the new gods for that!
