Lower City (2005)

Wonderfully offbeat film!

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Why do American audiences find poverty, ignorance and misery in foreign countries so compelling? Is it the same instinct that makes TV crime/prison shows like "Oz" so popular? Well, "Lower City" lives up to its title. This mindless, plot-free, formulaic piece of Brazilian flesh shots evoked a rare reaction in me, a confessed movie addict. I was outraged that I had wasted my time watching it in the optimistic hope that something of value would develop. In fact, this movie is a Brazilian version of the soft-core sex shows which were easy to find on premium cable stations after 11 PM back in the early 1990s. I fear this confirms my suspicion that the current world trend is toward greater stupidity in the visual media. Lázaro Ramos, as Deco, was the only dim light in this murky opus. Sonia Braga's niece, Alice Braga, the heroine of the piece, certainly played trashy with seemingly natural talent for it. If you have a choice between watching paint dry and watching "Lower City", I would suggest you choose the former.

Two childhood friends, Deco (Lazaro Ramos) and Naldinho (Wagner Moura) meet Karinna (Alice Braga), a stripper looking for a cheap ride to the city of Salvador, in exchange for sexual favours with the boys. Who could pass up a blonde like that, and in record time, we see the friends getting it on with her inside their steamship.It's actually an extremely simple story, with lacklustre sex, some flesh, and again, a short story premise being extrapolated painfully into a feature length movie. The central theme here is the disintegration of a deep brotherly friendship because of man's innate selfish nature when it comes to affairs of the heart, and how lust takes over to blind the dudes that it just isn't worth fighting over a slut.If I may paraphrase a popular saying, why forgo your sights on the various bikes available in the store for the village bicycle, which everyone has ridden? If there should be any plus points for the film, then it would be the handling of this character exploration of the breaking down of a friendship. However, that alone isn't sufficient to garner your attention through the movie.Alice Braga, the Brazilian actress who starred in City of God, looks good in the role, but seriously it's nothing to fantastic about it. Her Karinna is one seriously indecisive about the matters of the heart, though totally passionate about losing her clothes without batting an eyelid. While she realizes that her indecisive ways is causing havoc to the friendship of both men she likes, making some preliminary plans to escape the situation but not execute it doesn't help much too. What made it all worse, and this is directly linked to the story, is the frustration of leaving things just hanging in the air. The movie ends in similar fashion to Karinna's character - the inability to decide.Oh, and the overrated scenes of the city, it's seediness, gloominess, etc, it's really all done in quick montages, or on location sets that doesn't offer you anything more than a sneak peek. Like its characters, the movie's delivery just doesn't make you care for any of them, or their self-inflicted plight.All said, this movie will probably not get any thumbs up by the ah pek community. What they're primarily looking for, gets glossed over too quickly, bogged down by the characters trying to emote too much. I'm not sure how some can tout the supposedly steamy scenes as hot, unless of course they haven't got it in a long time.

This movie got the Cannes film festival's audience crazy! It is superb the way director leads those three Brazilian actors. They made me think YEAP, they are completely into the movie, and YEAP, they know what they are doing and like it! Threesome has never been discussed this way in the history of movies... There are those whom compare this film with François Truffaut's "Jules et Jim". The plot is the same (a love triangle concerning two friends and an impulsive woman)... I loved and I've read it's been succeeding every film festival it goes. I believe the director is the Brazilian's new director to be wildest projected, as Fernando Meirelles did 3 years ago with the superb "City of God"

Cidade Baixa is more of an accomplished film than you might think. The locations and the camera-work are well presented, The acting is very realistic and the main actress is beautiful as well as talented. It may not be City of God or even Central Station but this film is well paced and full of energy. The Cane and Abel style relationship between the two male leads becomes integral to the film's message: should you let a woman get in the way of a friendship. Well quite frankly you shouldn't as love and lust can be destructive as well as invigorating - how this manifests itself in the film is something I won't go into so as not to spoil it for you. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the film and I would recommend anybody to watch it.