Garota Dourada

The sequel from "Menino do Rio" brings back some of the characters from the previous film, also directed by Antonio Calmon. Here, surfer Valente (André de Biase) was abandoned by his wife Patrícia (Cláudia Magno) is things cooled down in their relationship. Along with their daughter, he travels to a Florianópolis seaside town, along with his buddy Zeca (Sérgio Mallandro), a rock-star who's trying to get away from his crazed fangirls. Trouble for both appears when the beautiful Diana (Bianca Byington) comes along and falls in love with Valente, but she's disputed by a local rival (Roberto Bataglin); and one of Zeca's fans managed to track him down to declare her love for him, a nerdy girl played by Andréa Beltrão.

The film follows the same high-spirits and humor from the previous entry, plenty of surfing and aerial sports sequences, humor and romance all around, and two guys fighting for one girl's love (if we count Valente's wife it's a love quartet but she's absent from the story for a time).

The major differences come in tone, with characters facing difficult and serious moments, and a more spiritual side to it all as Valente finds Pepeu's brother (Ricardo Graça Mello plays both) and helps him out with his musical career; just as the entity played by Carlos Wilson (I still don't have a clue if he's real or imaginary due to how the story presents him at times); and Diana's father Águia (Geraldo Del Rey) and his connections with the forces of universe telling him about his daugther's future love life and who she has to choose as her partner.

Highly fun and enjoyable to watch, it's a great delight in all senses, specially if consdering that decade had so many trashy films. This one goes just fine. But the same issue I had with "Menino do Rio" came here as well, with a downer bit that doesn't feel necessary to a story that goes with such good vibes. And I liked this a little less than the first film as it is more downer with some stories, some presentations were a little confused and rushed (the involvement between Zeca and the fan move way too quick, it's very jumpy). For a sequel made basically glued to the previous entry, it's a little strange that Valente's daughter is 4-5 years old, as she wasn't born then (weird plot hole, unless she was adopted but no hint on that).

Yet it's a relevant story about maturity and important life perceptions on love and friendship. It's sad to see that Valente and Patrícia didn't start off well in here, if we look back at all the things they went through to be together but life has some of those things. It was great to see the whole treatment given to the leading man as he approaches life with the same passion and intent as before, receiving good guidances on this new journey, still loving and adventurous. He and Diana formed a very interesting couple, more than he and Patrícia.

As it deals a little with the musical world, "Garota Dourada" features cameos from Marina, Guilherme Arantes, Ritchie and Lobão (drumming for Ritchie), so if you like any of those artists you get this fun bonus. More to be added? Not really. Pleasant times with this one, and a pity that a third and final film was never made as there were some themes that could be explored and close the group's life journey. 8/10.

It is curious that, a little later, André De Biasi and Andréa Beltrão would star (then, together with Kadu Moliterno) a very clever TV show with the same surfing atmosphere. Here, just the opposite: we have a quite bad and not intelligent film, a sequel to the tepid (but at least better than this) "Menino do Rio". Indeed, Antônio Calmon made several bad films, from B softcore to cheesy mainstream, and it has been a good idea to move to soap opera afterwards. This film "Golden Girl" is a chaos, with surfing and hang-glider, cliché complicated loves, boring action, and a bizarre mystic who speaks as a robot. Dire nonsense!