I Remember

"Eu Me Lembro" is a strange portrait of a time or place which completely leaves out characters, even including the character who is supposed to be sharing this portrait with us. It's one of those movies that feels like nothing really happens in it. It never grabs us or makes us feel anything.

Some aspects of the time depicted are sort of namechecked, such as the military dictatorship in Brazil, where the movie is set. But what do the characters think about it? You could get the same effect watching a newsreel. The fact that the information is relayed to us through characters we can't even name, or remember if we've seen them in prior scenes, deadens the impact. We need to see their reactions to gauge the seriousness of the situation, and it sounds rather serious. They don't react, or the director forgets to show it.

Everything blends into everything else in this movie. Nothing is underlined except maybe the protagonist's interest in sex. There are a couple of graphic masturbation scenes in the movie. But what about the rest of it? What are the character's hopes and dreams? What does he want to be when he grows up? Who is he, anyway? What is his personality? And his family: who are they?

And what was the point of the hallucinatory ending? The character discovers sex, and then he discovers weed. Not much of a character arc.