My Uncle Killed a Guy (2004)

good film but with many flaws

Absolutely Brilliant!

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Even if 99,99% of people that has seen this movie is Brazilian, I'll keep up with the English since it is the language of this website.This movie is a piece of cr*p. Worst acting I have seen for a loooong time. The kids are terrible. Specially the boy. This was the first time I saw someone with less facial expression than Arnold Schwarzenegger, and one single voice tone, like a 5 years-old kid reading in front of the class. How can someone so bad be the main actor of a movie ? The storyline is so shallow my daughter could have done better (she is 3 yrs old). It is so simple it could be written in a napkin and told in 3 minutes.There are only three possibilities for someone enjoy this movie: 1) you are a pre-teen; 2) you have been so brainwashed by Globo's stupidities that you think that anything that has the Globo's seal is awesome; 3) you have a serious brain damage.Avoid at all costs ! A shame to the Brazilian movie scene.

Another witty, romantic, funny, lightweight teen-oriented film directed and written by Jorge Furtado, combining love triangles, comedy, adventure and social commentary, and featuring his great ear for dialog (he's the smartest comedy writer working in Brazilian cinema today). Here, Furtado once again explores his trade-mark ersatz Cartesian logic construction of the narrative (which he's been developing since his famous, ground-breaking 1989 short "Ilha das Flores"): he makes ordinary stories look fresh by refusing linearity and taking time to consider the "what if" factor; his plots develop in bifurcations, they take side roads. When it seems we're lost in a maze, he throws us Ariadne's thread to a safe exit (his non-corny, unaffected happy-endings) -- but we don't feel fooled, we follow him with a smile.The cast is firmly lead by teenagers Darlan Cunha (his nonchalant, minimal acting is perfect for the part) and Sophia Reis (lovely without being "cute"), with Deborah Secco looking very sexy and overrated Lázaro Ramos doing what he does best: comedy. There's a lull in the final act, with too many songs commenting the action and plot holes that require a considerable suspension of disbelief, but the pace and editing are so swift and the mood so joyful that by then we're bought. This is Brazilian commercial cinema at its best: sunny, funny, smart, unpretentious, well-made.

Duca (Darlan Cunha) is a smart boy which lives with his parents. His life is about to change when his uncle (Lázaro Ramos), suddenly, arrives his parents' home and says: "I killed a guy!". The man says that he killed his girlfriend's former husband as self-defence. Smart as he is, the boy will try to help his uncle to not be arrested by the police, but at the same time, he finds out some mistakes in his uncle's story, and that probably things didn't happen just as his uncle told. He tells about this story to his friends, Isa (a girl for whom he has a crush), and kid (the guy for whom Isa has a crush!), and decides to start his own investigation… This movie is very good because it mixes an entertaining teenage adventure's story with a description – wonderfully done at parts – of some issues of nowadays society (in this particular case, the Brazilian society). Besides, it has an excellent sense of humour, which is used as a "weapon" to criticize several points of that society.Almost all actors are known from the Brazilian TV series/shows. I just didn't know the girl who plays Isa's role (Sophia Reis), but all of them did an excellent job, that's for sure! That's one more excellent film from Brazil!

This film, unlike Furtado's previous feature (The man who copied) is very well paced. It's a teenage flick really, although you might think otherwise because of its title. The crime-mystery element in the plot is only a diversion from the main theme: an underdog story.There are some really funny lines in it, and it's a good thing the director decided to make it a "real movie", without any miraculous deus ex-machina solutions and unnecessary plot "twists". Hopefully his next film will be even better.The acting is very good, and at times the situations portrayed bothered me, because they seemed so real. The ending could have been better but it makes you leave the theater satisfied. Good entertainment, but nothing extraordinary.