Christopher Columbus, The Enigma (2007)

Best movie ever!

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This movie is bad in every single aspect. Actors, direction, script... Many people think that this is a good film... for what? For the director. yeah yeah good... Oliveira is 103 years old, so for that he is the best director in the world. The Portuguese cinema is not this crap films... If you want to see Portuguese movies, you have two options: first: you are mad and you have to go to the doctor, or second, watch the old Portuguese movies. At least, they are enjoyable, happy... this film, my God, it's the worst movie I have seen until today! If you like cinema, the real cinema, that the actors, the director, the script are good and the movie is enjoyable, don't watch this. It's a complete waste of time.

The film is basically about this. A married couple is traveling around looking up sites connected to Christopher Columbus and various people give us some information about this historical figures life. There's also a woman who no one seems to see following them around, perhaps she is supposed to be an angel or something like that but it really didn't seem to fit in with the rest of the film.Monoel de Oliveira was 99 at the the time he directed it so just that he made it was a great achievement but to be honest it wasn't too good.It was filmed quite beautifully! And many of the scenes were great by themselves. However it's structure was rather poor. It jumped too much in time and the beginning of the film didn't have too much to do with the rest as it focuses on the leads youth and travel to America which is just cut off. So much is built up to at this point. We have yet to meet the father who called on the lead and his brother and the flow was rather nice but then we are multiple years later and he is a doctor and a scientist lecturing a group of people on diagnoses. We are then told that he has a fiancé back in Portugal but has history as a "mistress".We then cut a few years into the future and our lead is getting married. And what follows (this is about half way into the film) is the actual plot which features 3 of their journeys, their honeymoon and two trips as old people. We have not heard a single word about Columbus since the beginning.What's sad is that it's all so underplayed. We never really get close to the couple and we never really see it's obsession nor what it does to their marriage. Yes he is always talking about Columbus but we never get to see what drives it and what consequences it has. Furthermore the plot could have been built up more. As it is now it almost appears as mainly great single scenes thrown together. In fact it seems like they only got time to shoot about half the story. I really wish they had added more, included Columbus more or less all the way, gotten closer on the couple, shown how the lead got so obsessed with Columbus to begin with and perhaps also added something about how he went from a poor immigrant to a respected doctor.It's length is just 75 minutes and it doesn't really give you time to get bored, the imagery is very nice to look at and you might learn a few things about Columbus. But this is far from a great film and I would not recommend it.

The movie has terrible actors. Even young actors from the Portuguese soap-operas are better. Well, when most of actors are from the family, the best actors from this movie are then the American secondary actors. It is more than obvious that this movie was made only to get some money to pay the holidays of all Oliveira's family to USA and Madeira. The sound is awful, as well as the image. A kid could do a movie with a better argument. In the end, everybody becomes convinced that Colombus wasn't Portuguese with again terrible arguments! The movie cannot has 1/10, since it has still one funny part: "Oh Silvia!..." when the old actress (director's wife) forgets her lines. A terrible pseudo-nationalist movie, as a old men's crank.

I wasn't expecting much of this movie, not that it was an Oliveiras', I really respect his work, but because of what i read about it.He had this story he wanted to tell and made a decision about how to do it. A risky and brave decision. It's not made to please a massive public nor the artistic cinema lovers. It sometimes looks like a thesis presentation or a documentary with perfectly shooted scenes.It's a journey that takes you along with a couple in the quest for the true nationality of the man who discovered the American continent. And an appeal to keep fresh in our memories the golden age of Portugal's history.For those who say that looks artificially due to the unnatural dialogs, you're right. But it's suppose to. The characters talk to you through the screen telling you that the world is small, finite and theones who first notice that where the Portuguese. I think that was thepoint of the movie. And for that matter, the cinematography was amazinglycontextualised.A Portuguese movie about Portugal, by the main reference of this country's cinema. And if you were born here, you should watch it.