I swear... if I ever meet the director of this movie, I'll ask: how the heck could you believe for a second that this would work? Because this should have been too obvious to anyone but the mentally retarded.
The story supposedly takes place in Brazil, and several actors are Brazilians. However, many are Cuban. I could forgive the main actor's thick accent, since his Portuguese is decent; however, most others are downright ridiculous, lacking any grasp of the language. When the old groundskeeper first talked, I wondered why he was speaking Spanish. Others started speaking Spanish as well, but others kept talking Portuguese. No explanation was given to this. So I realized: the director wanted the audience to pretend that everyone was speaking the same language.
Sometimes, audiences can fill blanks with their imagination. Maybe we can close our eyes to some flaws and enjoy the rest of it. Sure, it's one thing to ignore a zipper on the back of Godzilla's rubber suit. But how to forgive the fact that they got actors who don't speak the same language to play the parts of characters who do? And it's not like they had a short budget or had to spend much on special effects.
Bad casting aside, what remains? A non-story about a nameless mentally troubled character.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The movie starts with this total loon waking up with the doorbell; he checks the peephole, and sees a man whom he does not recognize - yet he is somehow certain that the man wants to kill him.
He runs away and seeks his ex-wife for help, and a flashback shows that she dumped him because he had become a total sloth. She gives him the key of her apartment, so he can get the stuff he left behind. There, he urinates on the kitchen sink and floods the whole place when taking a shower for several hours.
He also seeks help from his sister, on whom he has a crush. She gives him money, so he goes to the family's farm, which is mostly taken by a biker gang.
**END SPOILERS**
Enough plot, that's pretty much the first half of the movie; the rest is about a biker gang, stolen jewels, a suitcase, corrupted policemen, a junkie, breasts, and even more incest.
Nothing in this story seems to have a purpose other than to shock and disturb the viewer. The original title means "annoyance", and it is indeed. Maybe it is reality seen from the point of view of a crazy person. The nameless non-hero has hallucinations and acts irrationally. Yet the world around him seems to be mad as well. Seemingly sane people act far more immorally than him.
The visual representation of this insanity is the only decent thing in this movie. Everything else is as meaningful as MTV's "Jackass" under a thin coating of fake psychology and social criticism.
The story supposedly takes place in Brazil, and several actors are Brazilians. However, many are Cuban. I could forgive the main actor's thick accent, since his Portuguese is decent; however, most others are downright ridiculous, lacking any grasp of the language. When the old groundskeeper first talked, I wondered why he was speaking Spanish. Others started speaking Spanish as well, but others kept talking Portuguese. No explanation was given to this. So I realized: the director wanted the audience to pretend that everyone was speaking the same language.
Sometimes, audiences can fill blanks with their imagination. Maybe we can close our eyes to some flaws and enjoy the rest of it. Sure, it's one thing to ignore a zipper on the back of Godzilla's rubber suit. But how to forgive the fact that they got actors who don't speak the same language to play the parts of characters who do? And it's not like they had a short budget or had to spend much on special effects.
Bad casting aside, what remains? A non-story about a nameless mentally troubled character.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
The movie starts with this total loon waking up with the doorbell; he checks the peephole, and sees a man whom he does not recognize - yet he is somehow certain that the man wants to kill him.
He runs away and seeks his ex-wife for help, and a flashback shows that she dumped him because he had become a total sloth. She gives him the key of her apartment, so he can get the stuff he left behind. There, he urinates on the kitchen sink and floods the whole place when taking a shower for several hours.
He also seeks help from his sister, on whom he has a crush. She gives him money, so he goes to the family's farm, which is mostly taken by a biker gang.
**END SPOILERS**
Enough plot, that's pretty much the first half of the movie; the rest is about a biker gang, stolen jewels, a suitcase, corrupted policemen, a junkie, breasts, and even more incest.
Nothing in this story seems to have a purpose other than to shock and disturb the viewer. The original title means "annoyance", and it is indeed. Maybe it is reality seen from the point of view of a crazy person. The nameless non-hero has hallucinations and acts irrationally. Yet the world around him seems to be mad as well. Seemingly sane people act far more immorally than him.
The visual representation of this insanity is the only decent thing in this movie. Everything else is as meaningful as MTV's "Jackass" under a thin coating of fake psychology and social criticism.
