Way He Looks, The

By:
In-House Review - Dec 19 2014

Positively enchanting, The Way He Looks is a feel-good high school romance that will likely warm over even the coldest, blackest and most bitter of hearts!

Blind student Leo (Ghilherme Lobo) doesn't usually let his disability get him down. He's of a sunny, cheery disposition - happy to lay around the pool with his best gal-pal Giovana (Tess Amorim). He wants to be treated like any other teenager. When new kid Gabriel (Fabio Audi) arrives at school, however, Leo starts feeling the pangs of puppy love and finds his confidence on less solid ground. Gabriel and Leo take an instant liking to each other and start spending a great deal of time together, but that makes Giovana feel left out and puts their friendship in jeopardy. On top of that, Leo is very worried that his feelings for Gabriel - who, for all Leo knows, is straight - might never be returned.

The cast in also uniformly excellent. Ghilherme Lobo is a compelling and endearing lead, Fabio Audi is a total high school dreamboat (it's easy to see the attraction) and Tess Amorim, whose character, in lesser hands, could have been written as a complete drip, is thoroughly loveable and relatable as Leo's jealous best friend.

The Way He Looks is based on writer-director Daniel Ribeiro's 2010 short film of the same name - which won countless awards and charmed the pants off of audiences and juries during it's initial film festival run. Anyone who has seen the original short will get the sense that Ribeiro is padding the run-time here. The short, after all, reached, in 17 minutes, the same heartwarming ending that the film takes 96 minutes to arrive at. Spending time with these characters, though, is so pleasant that it hardly matters. The extra, debatably superfluous material is quite welcome. It's nice to have extra time in this universe. It's hard not to fall in love with this movie.

By: GreenGiant

i saw this film when it opened in theaters last
Nov. and was totally fell in love with it. it tells of
the friendship between two high school students-
the blind and really cute Leonardo(Ghilherme
Lobo)and the new kid in school Gabriel( Fabio
Audi)equally cute. what begins as a friendship
evolves into a romantic connection.

two other reasons to buy this film.

1.the film which is from Brazil is easily
understandable due to A+ subtitles.

2.also while the film doesn't go to HBO or
Showtime levels in terms sexuality its way
more up front about the subject than a U.S
film would be.

By: Michael X

At first, it seems that blind secondary school student Leo(actor and Brazilian ballet dancer Guilherme Lobo) regards Gabriel(Brazilian actor Fabio Audi), a new student in Leo's class, as just another classmate he gradually becomes friends with.
Gabriel for his part seems fine at first just to want to be a friend of Leo's. Leo keeps a casual relationship with Karina (actress Tess Amorim) but gradually spends more time with Gabe. The first indication that either male friend might be sexually interested in the other, Gabriel has forgotten his hoodie in Leo's bedroom when the two of them worked on a school project earlier, and asks Leo to bring it to school with him on the next school day. But, that night before bed, Leo looks for and finds the hoodie, removes his shirt and sports shorts, and tries on Gabriel's hoodie, and begins sniffing it. He walks slowly and deliberately around his bedroom still wearing it, and then while lying in bed unzips the hoodie and slides his hand down his briefs and fondles himself. The two boys go swimming a little later at a hilltop pool, after which both prepare to shower in the locker room. Gabriel strips, takes Leo's hand and leads Leo-still wearing swim trunks- to the showers. Leo scrubs himself with his back turned to Gabriel briefly, then realizes that he's still wearing trunks, and slowly pulls them down and steps out of them, and Gabriel is watching this all from a few feet away, never taking his eyes from Leo's bum, before the two boys walk back to benches and towel off. Suddenly, it's evident that the two will be more than friends. There's an underlying theme that Leo will age out of living at home, and needs to do more for himself and start becoming more independent. Leo's father comes around to realizing this, and in one touching scene, he begins teaching Leo how to shave what little facial hair he has, something most guys take for granted but becomes poignant as Leo's father grasps the notion that his son needs to be more independent. It's a coming of age / coming out tale done better by UK films of nearly 20 years ago like Get Real and Beautiful Thing. Nonetheless, it's still a touching film with positive images of Sao Paulo, and it can't hurt that the two competent actors are good-looking and their straight female classmate is cute. It switches a few things around. The bullies and students who taunt Leo for being blind and holding hands with Gabriel come off seeming ineffectual, and Leo easily dismisses them with the flick of a middle finger without reprisal.