Era Uma Vez Eu, Verônica

Marcelo Gomes is an amazing director (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus, Joaquim...), Hermila Guedes is one of the best actresses from Brazil, and the same may ne told about João Miguel among Brazilian male actors. Then, this movie could not be less than good, and it did not disappoint. Is is far from obvious, does not follow clichés and conventional wisdom. It is also beautifully filmed, and besides the landscapes and the nice camera moves and frames, there are perhaps the most convincing sex scenes I ever seen (mostly between Hermila Guedes and João Miguel). It is about a woman, who takes care of patients as a physician but is also ill, as she suffers with depression. She is sad for ageing but also is beginning to climb her career steps, what she does not know if she wants to. There is a man who loves her and is good, and she likes him but follows mostly a chaotic self-destructive path of lust. There are friends and the warm water of the beach, but there is apathy, or a "stone heart" as she says. Her lovely father will not be there forever, and while he brings comfort, his situation also does not make hard things easier. A slow, careful, exploring and deep film about a woman, a healthcare profession and deseases. Choices may be made, anyway.

From the very beginning, lot of the scenes in this film are utterly unnecessary. Some reviewers called it existentialism, but did you guys really know what's existentialism means? I don't know about it. But at least I know that loving making in group sex on the beach, talking about masturbation when you were lonely or hungry in a bar, could hardly wait to take off your underwear to let the man easily penetrate you from behind....got nothing to do with the existentialism. Feeling lonely in a crowd space, in a deadbeat city, dealing with so many walking-dead old patients everyday....but neither such depression nor such frustration would be qualified for existentialism.

I really don't know what's the purpose of making this film, and some reviewer wishing this film could go on and on and never end....Well, if existentialism mixed with women seeking men, men seeking women could be really that fun, then existentialism needs Viagra to sustain it to go on forever.

This is billed as 'a fairytale in reverse' and I think it is easy to see why. Veronica is a newly qualified Psychiatrist in Recife, Brazil - she starts work as an intern at the City public hospital. She lives and dotes on her ageing and dying father. She has a great bunch of friends and a lover - Gustavo - who says he really loves her. So not a bad lot in life.

However, once she starts diagnosing her patients it opens a window on herself and she starts trying to diagnose what is wrong with her. She can not find romance but instead would rather have a one night stand with random pick ups of which Gustavo is aware. It is almost that the sex, self treatment and the songs she sings to her Dictaphone are all part of some healing process until she can find the cure to herself. The anti fairy tale part comes with the realisation that there is not a fairy godmother or an inevitable happy ending and probably the acceptance of such that make you be able to cope with whatever life throws at you.

Along the way there is a lot packed in and the relationship between father and daughter is really touching.This is told in a series of scenes that run in a linear narrative form and take us on the full scope of emotions and experiences for Veronica. It has a poetical feel in places and arty nudity in others. There is a fair amount of flesh on display here but it all seems rather natural, no one is trying to be super sexy or cool just as nature intended and that too adds to the overall mood of what is basically an art house film.

Please note I received a review copy for review purposes. The musical score is really rather nice too. This is from director Marcelo Gomes who has not had enough exposure outside of Brazil, but I think if he continues to make such self assured films like this then that position will change.