"O Filho Eterno" ("The Eternal Son") is a powerful dramatic story that reveals the inner conflict of parents who are caught off guard when life
surprises them when their child doesn't come in the way they expect, providing plenty of challenges along the way and how they have to deal to overcome
the obstacles given and love them jsut the way they are.
In this sad and nostalgic story, Roberto is an avid writer and fanatic soccer fan who is loudly cheering for Brazil's victory during 1982 World Cup's match
at the same time his wife (Débora Falabella) is about to deliver the couple's first child. It's all a matter of excitment and tension, and they look very
happy, celebrating everything from the game that was won and the baby who was born. It all looks good until they get the news the baby doesn't respond to
certain stimulations and is revealed that he suffers from Down Syndrome. The father's joy is turned into sadness and then later on Brazil gets eliminated
from the World Cup, and that's where the heart of the movie is when we follow Roberto's dilemas and questionings while trying to adjust his life to a son
who won't have much a good life and it's all up to the couple to find ways to raise him well.
I guess lots of viewers will have a problem relating to Roberto and his ways of dealing things because he's too self absorbed in himself and his
work, trying to find the right words to compose his writings and barely paying to attention, and for being very dismissive of his son leaving all to the
mother, who is very tender and loving with the baby then growing up as a kid. In the meantime, Roberto starts to drink heavily and finds himself a young
lover for whom he is almost destined to leave his kid and wife behind. But little by little, he starts to reavaluate things, thinking back of his wish to
become a father and start to make small changes even though he's still impatient with the environment around him.
This movie can be truly recommended for couples and people who want to become parents in the future since it deals in realistic ways and terms
about the condition parents face in life while raising their child. Sure, the example here is of a Down Syndrome kid and back when the story was
released there was a growing preocupation in the medicina field since Down's didn't lived all that much and information was little and imprecise about
lots of things (today is all different and more positive), but many of the problems faced by the main couple such as the daily routine, the care and
education of a kid is all brought up in realistic ways. Some folks take it as a burden while others see it as a blessing and try to provide the best
for their child. It's simply a very hard work, and Roberto's awakening to such reality takes an awful lot of time for him to accept it and embrace it.
I loved how the makers of it used different World Cup's as a background to show the father and the kid's evolution, from the very first scene up
until the last, there are several different art recreations from objects in the house (going from a typing machine up until the first computers) to
the cars on the street, it all looks good and you really feel part of history while seeing that - those who lived through the years depicted in the film
will have a fantastic time travel through the eras.
And the exceptional acting from everyone involved in it makes up for a great experience to be seen.
It's sad, melancholic, with minor use of humor and very reflexive when it comes to the main character's actions where it's hard to support him but in
some bits you can understand his frustration in all sectors of his life. Even though not all of us are parents, but most of us feel the pressure just
like he does and we try not to succumb to everything, and we find meaningful ways and reasons to keep going alive. If not for ourselves maybe for others.
And I'd like to believe Roberto keeps on going because deep down inside, though his son is not perfect as he dreamed to be, he's the one he got and he
must love him because it's his. 9/10.
