"Lua de Cristal" is one of those specially memorable Brazilian films that the 1990's generation grew to love and watch repeatedly. Leading star Xuxa's
popularity was gigantic and a true TV phenomenon that succeed in crossing the cinema barriers to the point of making this film a box-office in Brazil and
got a heavy runs on TV later on. I was one of those who had the chance to watch it over and over, enjoy the soundtrack and its corny Cinderella type story
and it was something that made my childhood.
But truth be told: it stayed there and I never went back...until now. It was an interesting look back to see the film is a different experience and
connect a little with the past memories and see what has changed, what stayed the same and if there's a value for newer audiences. My take goes that it's
hard to appeal to youngsters since they know better stuff than this in countless ways and manners, but for curious minds in seeing Brazilian cinema of
the past if offers a great deal of entertainment values and same great-looking shots from Rio de Janeiro street scene of early 1990's.
On the other hand, it's a little tough to endure the fairytale adventures of a pretty country girl (Xuxa) who goes to Rio in order to learn how to sing.
She still has that innocent child-like mentality (yet she's a teen) where she believes in dreams of fairytales and prince charming on a horse; but in
reality all she faces are the cruel burdens of the big town such as dealing a cruel aunt (Marly Bueno), her cousin (Júlia Lemmertz) and the cousin
who keeps making moves at her (Avelar Love). Our hero's only help comes with a friendly small girl, the singing teacher (Rubens Correa) and the pizza
delivery guy (Sérgio Mallandro), a clumsy young man with a big heart. All is cheesy, corny, one-dimensional and at times cringe yet it worked for that
audience. They had their fun as sure I had when I was kid. Today, just a couple of things work - the musical numbers and the title song.
I'm not gonna address the issues of political correctness and how things were back in the day because it's useless and I'm way past that - though I
find the sequence where she arrives in the city and a group of break dancers keep following her quite critical. It revolves on race things, and her TV
shows was to blame on that aspect for its lack of diversity in its early years. BUT if there's one thing that I value the most about the film is the
choice for Xuxa's Prince Charming. They could have given her any great-looking guy in the world but they settle with nutty, charismatic comedian Mallandro.
Goes to show that one teach some valuable lesson to kids back then when it comes to talk about what true love means. Most viewers just criticise him and
make some jokes about such unusual cinematic pairing.
But I'm greatful for this film and Tizuka Yamazaki's direction on it. Don't underestimate the importance this film had way back in time. Early 1990's
was a critical period for Brazilian cinema and production of new films nearly got to zero as government fundings on culture simply were extinguished and
basically cinema was made for people who had the means to finance it, private sector basically. And from that dark period, this film was responsible for
giving hope to Brazilian cinema, it was a massive hit and somehow the cinema survived and it's a hundred times than it ever was. Maybe I'm praising too
much but it's a feel that I have and others can attest it that a simple formulaic movie managed to keep things going.
It's dated alright but it's a guilty pleasure than even more than 30 years later still attracts audiences, mostly Xuxa fans who'll always love this.
As for my trip to the memory lane, well, it rendered some deep nostalgic memories of better times, innocent times, and for a little while I could grab them
and feel good about everything. This doesn't happen often. 8/10.
