A Heavy Cloud Over Heaven.

Rating: Null/10 (17 September 2004)

A popular surge swept the land just prior to the 2003 Oscars and "City of God" became a critical success with the Academy. The popularity is somewhat misleading though as this production has tons of problems with its Oscar-nominated script and uneven performances across the board. The setting early is 1960s Rio de Janeiro. A ghetto just outside the city limits is the breeding ground for dangerous gangs of thugs who are little more than adolescents who go around and create chaotic violence. One of these youngsters grows to become Leandro Firmino, a heartless miscreant who toes the line between just being cruel and being down-right psychotic. He is kept somewhat under control by his top assistant Phellipe Haagensen, but in their world both are in as much danger as those that come into contact with them. As all this goes on another youngster (who grows to become Alexandre Rodrigues) from the same neighborhood looks to take a different route completely by trying to become a photographer. Rodrigues, like his contemporaries, also has a life that seems to be on a tight time table. The picture advances to the 1980s and the ultimate fates of the primary characters come shining through in vivid and ironic fashions. Directors Fernando Meirelles (Oscar-nominated in the category) and Katia Lund develop a technologically interesting picture that benefits greatly from landmark cinematography by Oscar-nominee Cesar Charlone and highly difficult editing techniques by Daniel Rezende (also Oscar-nominated). The camera-work is enough to give this film a high mark, but once again the performers are not as good as advertised and the script by Oscar-nominee Braulio Mantovani is unsteady and a bit pretentious. The fact that the tale is based on fact does not really give the picture any more credibility than it would have if it had been from the mind of a foreign screenwriter. The characters are not always believable and are usually not worth caring about. Many problems, but still a noble and overall intriguing product. 4 stars out of 5.