Lula da Silva has just become president of Brazil, he's seen as the champion of the downtrodden people of that country. Naturally, the middle class and the wealthy abhor his politics. One male family member expresses sympathy for Marxist ideas, but you get the feeling his sympathy is only skin deep. Jose is aging, a family mainstay whose future is doubtful. The matriarch Laura (beautifully played by Itala Nandi, very well preserved at 80) takes great pleasure in ordering everybody around as if they were her servants. Augusto Madeira and Camila Morgado are Nestor and Bete, a couple who still know how to enjoy their sexuality as they head into middle age. There are many more characters--as many as you would find in an Altman film--but they are backgrounders.
I found the political content to be perfunctory; it's as if the directors and scenarist knew they had to make ideas clash but had little emotion invested in that.
I found the political content to be perfunctory; it's as if the directors and scenarist knew they had to make ideas clash but had little emotion invested in that.
