A series of unfortunate events follows an important teacher (Paulo José) when after a romantic evening with his mistress he gets locked out
of her apartment completely naked and now he has to run for cover while neighbors, strangers and the police are all after him just because he's naked. The
premise of Fernando Sabino's story and this movie directed by Roberto Santos is a curious and humored one, but its execution is faulty, pointless and
barely any trace of humor. Tears of joy followed when the credits rolled because I couldn't find anything funny, it's all bizarre events happening and
I was just shaking my head in disbelief trying to laugh at things but just couldn't.
I have some vivid memories from the 1990's remake starring Cláudio Marzo and despite all the absurdity it was a funny movie with the same
despeation as this one has. I was only kid then and enjoyed it quite a lot, and would definitely watch again if available or broadcast somewhere. This
one however was pathetic without anything special to show. The only positive thing is that we can care a little about the man's problems trying to find
some helpful soul who can provide him some clothes, but overall those folks only think of calling the cops on him. Maybe Sabino's ideal was to conceive
a project where all humanistic and decent side of people is lost, no one in the crowd are trustworthy or helpful and mankind is doomed because simple
acts of help can't be provided to a perfect stranger who's simply got caught in a bad situation.
Paulo José is very good in the title role, and the movie has some nice moments with Leila Diniz, Flávio Migliaccio, Walter Forster, Thelma
Reston and Milton Gonçalves but the story tries too hard to be funny and fails badly. First of all, to finally get there to the point where all the
trouble begins the story takes some damned 45 minutes, giving us a boring background about the main character planning his trip to another estate in
order to present his work, his relation with his wife and then later he meets a friendly group at the airport who introduces him to a beautiful woman
and then finally we get to the film's main story. The remake (the little I remember actually) was more straightforward when it came to present its
action.
On a deeper analysis can we find this a tale about the hypocrisy of a moralistic society who criticizes and judge what they see but can't
provide means to help a man in trouble? For the most part, the naked guy was more friendly and respectful than the people who persecute him, mostly
low-life and scum people who fail to be decent. With all that in mind, I don't find ways for a critical story such as that to actually be funny, it just
show the tragedy of a man while facing society in the way that he is and the way we were all born. Part of its appeal for today's audiences because
there's so much worse happening in the world and around us that we can find this scenario slightly funny, but it all depends on the circumstances.
The only enjoyable sequence is the one where the furniture movers carry the heavy wardrobe with the man inside of it to a couple's new home much to
their surprise. That's it.
Painfully annoying and exhausting, "O Homem Nu" is a film to be forgotten. I really hope I can do that...but with time. I can't recommend
it. 3/10.
