Real Beleza

Perhaps not a typical film from brilliant director Jorge Furtado, as it is a drama without levels of comedy. It is a solid movie, anyway. It reminds The Bridges of Madison County in many ways, but not being a version of Clint Eastwood's romantic drama. Brichta and Esteves are good actors and a real life couple, and they do a good work together. Cuoco is also convincing in his role.

"Real Beleza" ("Real Beauty") was a strange surprise that really captured my attention from the very first shot all the way the very last shot. It tells a simple story with great artistic taste, nice interpretations from the main cast, and reveals an interesting love story along with a romantic tale of impossible and unlikely dreams becoming true.

Vladimir Brichta plays a famous photographer who discovers a pretty girl (Vitória Strada) during a school photoshoot and he wants her to become his new model after being struck with her fascinating looks and real beauty. Problem is that she doesn't want to become a model, already having plans to graduate and go to college, and not to mention since she's underage the man would have to get permition from her parents to sign her as a model.

Brichta's character doesn't give up easily and he travels all the way down to the south of Brazil to meet the girl's parents. While the father is away on a trip, he gets the chance to meet the girl's mother (Adriana Esteves, Vladimir's wife in real life) and he stays at their house while discussing the girl's future, when he tries to convince the woman that her daugher is a natural beauty with plenty of talent to become a success in the fashion world.

In between photographs, nice meals, acomodation and getting to know each other better, the photographer and the mother have an affair and eventually fall in love in that gorgeous contryside. Things turn a little sour when the old man returns and he's very opposite to see his daughter posing for pictures.

The senior man (played with brilliancy by Francisco Cuoco) is a disabled misantrophe who is only fond of his collection of books and he doesn't trust the young man so much, but they have long exchanges about the girl's future and what it holds for her; one thinks she'll succeed as a model while the other thinks she is destined to an already planned future. Who will the battle? And what about the mother's resolution torn apart between the man she's married and the new found love of his life? Lots of questions are rasied here in a very balanced film that takes it time to develop and present several dilemas between this quartet of characters.

I haven't heard about this film from Jorge Furtado, definitely one of his lesser known works and possibly his most underrated and underseen. I've simply caught it in early mornings and the cast names made me go forward without regrets. Here's a patient, romantic and inspired movie that feels and looks real, with characters having plenty of dimensions, contradictions, passions and they grow before your eyes in very significant ways. To not be missed if given the oportunity to watch it. 9/10.