Any film director who wants to make a film representing “the street, the problems of the homeless and the hopeless, should know by now he has to get it right, and that includes having characters who, whatever their circumstances, are sympathetic and interesting. Here we follow a hopeless man, Sombra, living in a slum in Lisbon, scraping by, dabbling with criminality and just surviving. But, here’s the rub, he is an unengaging character with little to fire the imagination. He is rude to his auntie, who he rips off mercilessly, and is knee-deep in trouble with a gang who veer from utterly vile to comic-book silly in seconds.
Sombra owes the gang cash, and tries to get it from the lazy pimp who owes him money, including a nasty beating up, but, desperate, reluctantly agrees to pay off his debt by taking part in a robbery. Does it all go to plan and they all go off into the sunset? Hmmm.
It’s an ugly film, both in the way it looks and its theme. Using that irritating hand-held camera style to make everything look “authentic, it’s poorly lit, the colours are ghastly and washed out, and the actors are, well, not exactly photogenic. Similarly it sounds jarring all of the characters speak Portuguese-based Creole, which seems to involve shouting at each other and overlapping each other’s speech. Subtitles here are for once a real problem, as it’s not clear who is saying what line, leading to plenty of character confusion.
The main character, Sombra, is leading a desperate life but we are given little to go on to follow his story. When in doubt reach for a pet but here an iguana seems a strange choice, and he doesn’t even seem to like the poor creature much. A cute girl who turns up seems far too manipulative a try to engage us, and it’s too little too late anyway.
In the press pack the director, who is Swiss, talks of the “poetry, poetic absurdity of daily life and offbeat humour he should spend more time working in his own language and milieu, and maybe write a proper screenplay the improvised nature of his film here leads to boredom far more than spontaneity.
Overall verdict: Depressingly bleak, frankly dull look at urban life with little sense of hope or beauty, but lots of feeble punch-ups and ludicrously two-dimensional characters discussing what they want for lunch.
Reviewer: Mike Martin