Amores Possíveis

This is not the greatest movie of all times, but it's fun to watch. I've just seen it on a local network and was reminded on how surrealistic it is. I mean, they're college colleagues and he's not sure she likes him, but has the courage to invite her to the movies. She doesn't show up. Then, fifteen year pass by until they meet again. Well...He didn't have her phone number? She never showed up again in college? Then, how did she graduates? At a certain point she claims she left for two years to the US, then stayed there for 10 years. That all happened that night when she was supposed to meet him at the theater? But don't forget, this movie doesn't rely on reality at all! It's about wild possibilities in the lifetime of two people. Worth taking a look at anytime one's got spare time.

Carlos, a lawyer, has three different lives but one thing is the same: A dream about ex girlfriend, Julia. Years earlier, Carlos and Julia were supposed to meet at the movies. She never showed up.

The first Carlos is married to his wife, Maria, but is not very happy with his life. The second Carlos is divorced with a son and lives with his male lover. The third Carlos is single with a string of different girlfriends and lives at home with his mother.

Each man is reunited with his love, Julia, but the ending for each man is not what you'd expect.

Amores Possíveis (Possible Loves) is an interesting story of three different possible loves. It is acted out well by the main characters Murilo Benico and Carolina Ferraz who play multiple parts.

I also liked the music soundtrack, which featured songs by musicians like Chico Buarque, Zizi Possi, Ana Carolina, João Gilberto, Paulinho Moska, Bonga, Afro Cuban All Stars and much more.

This interesting movie's story and characters are overshadowed by Murilo Benício's tour-de-force performance as Carlos - rather as the three Carloses. He is so stunning that it's hard to care or even be aware of anything else.

Just watching him shift so expertly and so convincingly and with such apparent ease and mastery between the three very different personas is vastly entertaining and makes the movie definitely worth watching, but it also makes appreciating anything else about the movie nearly impossible. I suspect that Carolina Ferraz's three Júlias and Emilio de Melo's three Pedros are equally impressive, but they persistently fade into the background beside Benício's brilliance.

It makes me want to watch his other movies to see if he so dramatically dominates everything he does, or if director Sandra Werneck just pulled this extraordinary performance out of him. He's much like Marlon Brando, in that his monumental talent as an actor, his almost superhuman physical beauty, and the strength of his presence so outshine everything around him that it's hard to see anything or anybody else in the movie. Brando was like that in every movie he made; it'll be interesting to see if the same is true of Murilo Benício.

I saw this film yesterday in a very tiny cinema in Frankfurt, in the back part of a bar. A really cool place that created the necessary environment to watch this movie.

This is a film one would always like to see. Three different stories based on almost the same script, with different characters and life situations. One of these stories with a different ending. The one that all of us would like to be the `real' one, if there is such a thing like a real one, the one with the happy ending. Unfortunately the most improbable one.

This three parallel stories are not based, as `Run Lola Run', in three different consequences on how the main character decides in front of one situation. This is a nice script experiment, involved in a very funny movie. I enjoyed it, and I hope you will enjoy it too.

An interesting film, but not a great one. The basic question--"What if...." is always fascinating. This question is not really explored carefully, but it does provide the basis for the plot.

The actors are handsome/beautiful, and the love scenes are artful. However, don't expect gritty Latin American realism. We are shown a Brazil where everyone is attractive, everyone lives in elegant apartments, and there is beauty everywhere. (No slums, no crime, no blemishes.)

Basically, this film is pared down to three love stories--no one worries about work, or social issues, or whether Lula will become President of Brazil. No one talks about anything besides love, or maybe really sexual passion.

Still, this movie is not boring, it is great to look at, and it is honest in it's own limited way. Not worth a special trip, but worth seeing if the opportunity presents itself.