Maria and the Others (2004) User Reviews

A gentle comedy with a heart

[filton · 6/10 · 8 May 2004]

A very nice Portuguese film that makes you smile and laugh, with very good production values (except the Portuguese blight - the sound). It's rare to find a Portuguese film that dares to be low key, but this one does and gets away with it nicely. There's a coherence to it, too, and a well rounded off resolution.

And there are some lovely performances, notably from the hilarious Ana Brito e Cunha as Isilda and the very lovely Isabel Abreu as Joana. Along with the stunning Catarina Furtado as the Maria of the title, these are three friends who just can't seem to get their relationships right, but we have a couple of hours' fun (with the occasional moist eye) watching them try.

A well done drama that is also funny between gaps...

[RJGomes · 7/10 · 3 February 2010]

First of all I need to say that I'm Portuguese and it's not usual to me spend my time watching Portuguese movies, probably one each year or even none...

...And the reason is the almost generalized idea between the Portuguese people that the national pictures are awful, really close to the worst ever made! However, in the last decade, it starts to surprises me when we get back the funny of the 40s when "Leão da Estrela" e "Costa do Castelo" were among the worlds best of their time, with movies like "Pulsação Zero" or "Sorte Nula", both from director Fernando Fragata and also with some actors and music in common.

This one is also good, not of the same kind because it isn't a true comedy; in fact it's officially a drama, a woman's drama the has some unexpected funny parts, cause of humorous characters or hilarious things that happen to them, like the hypothetical travel to the Caribbean just to get laid.

The plot works and can surprise us a few times; the actors are fine, the locations regular as the score; but the truth is that it all make sense, then we can count it as a nice effort for the national cinema, that seems to be starting from the ashes as the phoenix.

If you want to watch a Portuguese movie, surely you can take better option, but it stills one to be measured.

I did not like it...

[Braza · 4/10 · 25 October 2005]

Just saw it yesterday in the Sao Paulo Intl Film Festival. Just before going I came here to see how it was rated, and at that time it was 7.4, a pretty nice rate...

After 15 minutes I was dying to get out (never did this), but felt embarrassed to do so as the producer of the movie was in the screening.

I did not like at all, the dialogs are shallow and lead nowhere, the characters are shallower than the dialogs, nothing lead anywhere, and the worst and worst: plenty of Siemens and Organics advertising on the movie. Despite the fact that I already paid to go to the movie and entertain myself, I still have to be bombarded by the main character chatting on the internet and Siemens mobile popping-up all the time on her lap-top; or another character having a bath or cutting her hair just to have Organics shampoo displayed enormously on the screen! All of this would be bearable if the plot, characters, romances, anything was good, but was bad, really bad! A "don't know how to do" sex-in-the-city.

Don't waste your time or money.

At last one entertaining portuguese movie

[spartakius · 29 April 2004]

The portuguese movies are very depressing and colonial war themed but this one is different.

It tells the story of 3 girl friends (Ana Brito e Cunha is amazingly funny! and Catarina Furtado is glamourous as always) and their problems with men.

Every aspect of modern dating is there: internet dating, sms messages, metrosexuality, going out with gay men... It's really well done and at last one portuguese film that makes you feel good when you leave the cinema!

A must see!!

Maria, I'm very disappointed with you!

[mario_c · 2/10 · 27 September 2007]

When I bought this DVD I thought: "It seems to be a nice light comedy about love and relationships made up in Portuguese standards… let's give it a chance…" I was TOTALLY WRONG! What a disappointing movie! First, it's not a comedy; it's a cheap drama which can be so melodramatic that it's even worse than many Portuguese soap operas! Second, the plot is so boring, and leads nowhere… It has no structure, it just flows, like the wind, in one or another direction… The production is also bad! The sound mixing is horrible, because sometimes the voices are disconnected. It made me remind some old Portuguese movies from the 80's… The acting should have been better too… Well, to sum up, it's not with films like this one that Portuguese cinema will improve! In fact, it was one of the worst Portuguese movies I have seen in the last years! Bad argument, bad acting, bad production… I had no high hopes for this movie, but it was much worse than I've ever imagined! Just forget about it!