For those who enjoy a soap opera, Brazil is fertile ground, as the overwhelming majority of general TV channels in the country transmit, on average, four soap operas daily. Invariably, much of this material eventually goes around the world, being bought and broadcast in other countries. One of the most permeable markets for Brazilian teledramaturgy is, of course, my country, due to its cultural and linguistic proximity. I watched "Pages of Life" twice: the first was around 2007, and the second was about two years ago, when it was reprised.
Contrary to most novels by Manoel Carlos, the plot has something more interesting than a lot of romance and melodrama. The story revolves around two fake twin brothers separated at birth by a ruthless grandmother, who kept her grandson but rejected the girl for having Down's Syndrome, having been adopted by a doctor at the clinic where she was born. Again, doctors taking a leading role in the plot, which is annoying because it looks like we're watching the same soap opera chewed for the tenth time. In fact, Manoel Carlos is not very original, and all soap operas he wrote are so alike that it is annoying. Almost as annoying as the fact that all the protagonists call themselves "Helena". Anyway, this soap opera was worth watching for the beautiful story involving the kids, and I was watching with some pleasure the development of the plot, that still has the problem of having a lot of dead moments, where nothing happens and we are only giving audience to the TV channel without receiving anything in return. I liked the performance of Regina Duarte, who is an excellent actress (she is the eternal Viúva Porcina for me), although her character was too loving to be truly credible and too sweet, like a coffee where someone poured too much sugar. Lilia Cabral was also excellent. On the other hand, José Mayer was too much like himself and thousands of other characters he did, which is bad for an actor.
