Alice

"Alice" is a sad and deep movie about a missing child. Mário (Nuno Lopes) is a father of a little girl that is missing and since then his life is a complete routine… Each day he does every little step he had done the day she disappeared. He walks in the same streets at the same time, he catches the same train and sees the same persons, and he goes to the same places (including her school). He's in deep despair, and as he can't do anything else, he does that routine hoping she will pass again in one of these places one day… Beside that he mounted a "vigilance structure" with a large number of video-cameras installed in some friends' houses which record some of those streets (he also have friends at the airport and metro security who lend him some vigilance tapes). He's really convicted that someday she will appear in one of these cameras…

It's a very sad and touching movie, because it's about a matter that is always hard to "talk about". The plot is very simple in its structure, because it's very straight and easy to follow, but at the same time it also gives us a feeling of complexity, of something that it's not explained: We don't know, for example, who are these characters or how did Alice disappear.

The movie is a bit slow and melancholic, but it's just the way it should be to a story like that. The music, which is a very beautiful piano piece, helps a lot to this ambiance of melancholy and deep sadness; but also the footage, because all film is shot in a grey light, as if an enormous cloud had arrived over Lisbon…Very nice too, and totally connected to the ambiance of the story.

The character of Nuno Lopes (Mário) is also very well portrayed, because it has the typical figure of a person which is lost in life: Sadness in his eyes, unshaved face, defeated posture, always a serious expression… Excellent job done by Nuno Lopes and the production of this movie!

One of the best Portuguese movies ever produced. A simple, straight story about Mario, a father searching for his missing daughter - Alice. Shooted in a dark, depressing way with strong and moving roles. Mario creates an illegal video surveillance network all over Lisbon, watching hours and hours of DV tapes every day in high speed, expecting to see some clue about Alice. One day the search seems to be over. If you like to watch different cinema with alternative views and ideas you can't loose this one! Won a prize at 2005 Cannes Festival. The music by Sasseti is also intense, somehow like some tunes by Tiersen in "Lenin" or "Amelie".

Following the comments that have been posted up until now I also think this movie could be a little bit shorter or faster paced. Besides that...

Everything suits and fits the style that was intended. I'm not familiarized with the work of Manoel de Oliveira but I sure loved the consistency and emotional tension delivered by this fair example of good Portuguese movie production. Loved the cinematography and casting as well as the soundtrack which is nothing less than minimalist and straight to the point.

A sad story told in a "sad" way. The absence of dialog in some scenes is almost scary due to the tension involved around the baseline of the plot. The two main actors are capable of making us believe they are truly feeling broken inside, lost in their own senses, confused by an harsh reality, truly great work by everyone involved.

I'm not gonna write about the plot itself because if you're reading this you probably are already familiarized with it but I can say I was very depressed at the end and that's good in a drama.

By the end credits you feel ready to cry under your sheets. What you've just watched and felt is too catastrophic and heartbreaking to belong to reality and the scary thing is that you realized exactly that. There's little fiction about the whole thing...

7/10

I'm not a big fan of Portuguese movies but this was a step in the right direction for Portuguese cinema. It was shot with great detail and mastery, showing an image with a quality comparable to any Hollywood movie. However the photography was above the average of any typical Hollywood movie for it showed such special care which resulted in an involving touching experience. The soundtrack was very good too and very adequate. It was simple and effective helping to create an environment of deep sadness and anxiety. The plot is very simple and you can figure it out in the first 5 minutes, however this movie isn't about the story, it's about feelings and it is in that sense that I think it deserves, at least, 7 out of 10. The feelings of sadness, anxiety, hope and love are the main theme of this movie, and they are passed on to the viewer in such a sublime way that at the end of the movie you feel you ... (you'll just have to see it) What I tell you is that it's impossible to feel indifferent with this movie.

Only reason I didn't give it a better rate is very personal, I just don't like depressing movies...and this movies does push the same button a little too much.

Yep, here's comes another Portuguese Tsai Ming-Liang... Another guy that thinks it's pretty cool to make a whole movie out of two pages of dialogue; that believes that rainy days, blue-tinted cinematography, Satie-like piano and the constant droning of passing cars and passing trains are an original way of expressing the anguish of modern urban existence; that pointless boredom, however well filmed (as indeed it was) can ever be something different than pointless boredom. What is truly absent in this movie, besides poor little Alice, is a story, as ever that detail that is never allowed to get in the way of the Big Ideas, Big Characters and Big Images of our filmmakers (except João Canijo, that at least makes the effort of riping-off Shakespeare). All the artistry in the world cannot save such an empty, empty, object.