Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Brooklynn There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Kim Harris I watched this on the excellent MuBI Internet movie channel and found it an intriguing look at personal relationships. It has a very leisurely pace and there is no "action" but it is beautifully filmed and the scenes of Lisbon are beguiling. The dialogue and motion of the actors is deliberately stylised and there is much looking directly at the camera. Also the framing of dialogue between pairs of characters is unconventional; it shows each speaker full face in turn. Nevertheless, if you can cope with such lack of cinematic convention, it's an enjoyable piece. The Portuguese language is beautiful, to say nothing of the protagonist played by Leonor Baldaque.

Miguel Reis-Abreu It was so bad that I saw everything just to mock. Postcard after postcard, this movie should be seen at home where friends can gather and make fun of it. I guess the actors are not proud of it and like all of us, just have bills to pay. At first, I though that it was a kind of first film experience, where the director tries some things like filming with candles... but no. It's not a student's first work. It's just a really bad movie, with poor and stupid dialogs and long and boring scenes. There's a kid they say it's 6yo, who already has full and definitive teeth, and a 40yo count, that is at least 60. Next to this, friends holiday movies are a must see!

coertcom I've only walked out a few films in my life. This was one of them. What annoyed me most was the unnatural way the actors were instructed to speak their lines. It took me out of the movie. And they were taking their sweet time to. Line - pause - line, like those learn a language tapes. Though intentional, this style was not consistently applied.Also, there were only so many close-up shots of Leonor Baldaque's Bambi eyes I could take. Or panoramic shots of Lisbon. They are nice at first, the whole movie is esthetically pleasing, but they loose their power the umpteenth time they are used. Fans of decorative tiles: this is the must see movie of the year.Half-way through the audience was getting giggly. Not a good sign, as this isn't a comedy by far. It's just so ridiculously pretentious at points, that it's hard not laugh, or sigh. When chapter V began I darted out. Far from the only one in the audience to do so. Experiments are necessary, too bad this one failed as badly as it has.

Matthew Stechel Film is a pretty but sluggish walk through Lisbon as this actress is in town to shoot a film about a nun who falls in mad passionate love with a sailor on leave. The actress wanders around Lisbon at night and finds an actual nun who seems to never leave a kneeling position at the altar of one of the churches she comes across in her wanderings. The actress then starts obsessing about said nun, as well as having several encounters with various men of Lisbon--and none of the amorous kind which is all the more surprising given how pretty the leading actress is. That's more or less it in terms of plot--but the plot is besides the point here.The point (i think) is about how the life force of a city can influence the life force of its citizenry--and how this can have a great affect on any visitors looking to get lost amongst its peoples. Its not a bad watch--Lisbon is shot very very nicely throughout--and the leading actress while not getting to really express anything beyond vague sentiments about destiny and fate and the like is pleasant enough company for the two or so hours running time.She does have a horrible habit of looking directly and intently into the camera--seemingly at the audience in various shots throughout the film. That this happens repeatedly throughout is obviously meant as a directorial touch--but one that becomes rather irritating the more its repeated (irritating that is until it becomes funny because it happens so often enough that it soon becomes several characters who once they finish speaking end up starting intently into the camera--almost as if they're daring us to disagree with what they just said!) The pacing of the film while deliberate is definitely of the slow kind. Its not bad if you're looking for a nice leisurely wander through Lisbon--but its not as if much happens...and yet i was hardly bored while watching it. Film is somewhat captivating as the hypnotically good looking leading lady walks around staring at things and taking in the locals and customs. Film actually reminded me of Jim Jarmusch's Limits of Control where despite differences in genders and professions, both films are essentially about its main characters killing time between jobs wandering around a city and trying to take in the specific time and place of a specific culture--and its citizenry. On that front its definitely successful.