"Lisboa" is a bit of a conundrum. It goes for the box office perk with a smattering of gratuitous sex scenes, but it also refuses to fall for the "temptation" of a Hollywood ending. Perhaps both are aimed at an indie audience. I don't know but both, I think, detract from a solid crime drama, and from its two featured actors (Sergi Lopez, Carmen Maura), who in spite of the plot's blots, convincingly deliver compelling and memorable performances.
It's true that Joao is a road salesman of porn cassettes, but it doesn't follow in the least, given his disposition and innate principles, that he would sexually assault a distressed woman stranger in a bathroom. Nothing prior and nothing after would suggest even such a fleeting intent. In fact, the porn he pushes on his long tiresome sales routes might just as well be vacuum cleaners; for he's been longtime weary of not only his job, but his family, and his nationality. But his sex ad fulfilled, he and his unlikely prey, Berta, can now focus on her profound, and deeply disturbing plight. As her frightening nightmare gradually unfolds, he begins to act on and commit to what he learns, and to Berta herself, who knows too much of her family's investments in shady business and murder, and is on the run. A mutual respect and shared passion ensue only interrupted by another ad insert, this time in the form of Berte's exhibitionist daughter who warrants no more than a glance from Joao.
But Berta too must concede to the box office. In a rare moment of calm after a high intensity chase scene, she manages to offer Joao what he tried to take by force earlier: a free quickie--one that only a gymnast could perform. Could she be acting from madness induced by the excruciating stress she's under? If so, its form is way too convenient. And within seconds, Joao and Berta are back on the road, their lives in the balance, as the dangers, hazards, and betrayals of their exhausting ordeal mount. But Berta's has still not escaped her ulterior use; for her insolent and despotic husband drags her far aside and subjects her to a battering body search, as her daughter, who is set up as her competitor for sex and attention over Arturo in a female cat fight, is ordered to abandon her targeted mother. What it comes down to is that Berta is present to deliver both the good plot and its sensational tack-ons.
But that's not all Berta absorbs because "Lisboa's" disturbing ending also claims--or exploits her as this story's prime victim. True, the conclusion is no commercial break, but it's devious enough to undermine Berta's faith and courage, to deprive her of her own just conclusion, and Joao's championing of her. It also implies that a woman who doesn't know her place, who steps out of line, and refuses to collaborate, must serves as a sacrificial lamb. Does Joao sell her out? Well, he's never evasive, but he does fail to pull the trigger... But no, it's the movie's ending that's the explicit sell out.
