Mundo do Cinema, by Jr. Schutt Costa . 07/11/2013

“REACHING FOR THE MOON” ***

A woman reveals to a friend she feels she’s the loneliest person alive. She goes on a trip to an exotic country looking for inspirations and ends up learning finding herself. A second woman is a wealthy gardener and architect who doesn’t need any lesson except accomplishing her intimate desires. These two women and their tumultuous relationship are the focus on Bruno Barreto’s new film. It’s his most delicate project, recounting the affair between legendary American writer Elizabeth Bishop and famous architect Lota de Macedo, using a sensual sensibility to present their love story, but also with a powerful study on repressed emotions through transformations and revolutions around them.

At first, Elizabeth, played by Miranda Otto, is an uptight woman, locked to herself, her writing and whisky addiction. When she arrives in Brazil to stay with a former college-mate she faces a cultural clash that awakens her sexuality and perspective on the world. She becomes involved with her friend’s lover, Lota, played by a ferocious Gloria Pires, leading to a passionate affair, an extended companionship, and inevitable complications. These aspects diving the narrative are told with a bohemian and sophisticated style exposing these women’s exchanging their most individual characteristics: their self-supportive strength and personality. The exuberant landscape, of one of the most beautiful places in the world, the bi-cultural experience, and the historical facts, are also attributes in Barreto’s efforts, discreetly moving the love story away to point the awakening of social, political, and sexual revolutions, including the Militar Strike. The relationship caused tremendous and different effects on both of these women, and the most recognizable consequence is the fact that while on their relationship, Elizabeth wrote a book that gave her the Pulitzer Prize, and Lota dedicated herself to build the Park of Flamengo in Rio.

“ALL IS LOST” *

In the opening scene, the protagonist is trying to apologize for his mistakes while debris float on the ocean. The man is alone on a boat in the middle of nowhere and as he struggles to prevent the worse, fixing the damages, the audience is invited to testify his attempts on it and how he deals with that anxiety. Different from films like “Cast Away” and “Life of Pi”, which both follow a single character lost in the sea, Robert Redford’s character makes the audience really feel alone. After the first line, there won’t be any dialog, besides a hollow for help, a cursing of exhaustion, and a moment of despair. Although it sounds interesting for those who enjoy silent films like me, watching him trying to survive, facing the risks and fears, it never gets interesting with the dragging narrative. It isn’t even a meditative or contemplative narrative, and even if there’s an Eco-message or a modern style for a silent narrative, the efforts of respected actor Redford, and promising director Chandor aren’t enough to prevent it from sinking.