Boys In Brazil

By: Amos Lassen

When one of their friends is assaulted during a gay pride parade in Sao Paulo, Brazil, they make a pact to come out of the closet together. We meet Vicente (Marcello Airoldi) a successful businessman, Roger (André Bankoff) a family man, Mauro (Luis Fernando Vaz) and Rodrigo (Maurício Evans) school friends. What the four share is their sexuality but no one knows that except for them and now they have themselves and each other a year during which they must come out.

The idea sounds relatively simple but, as we all know, coming out can be very difficult and traumatic. We see how much courage it takes to do so because the discrimination in Brazil especially for those who hold professional positions. If we look at other gay-themed films that deal with coming out, we see that it is usually treated as highly problematic. The humor that we see is the kind about which we chuckle rather than laugh out loud. It something comes across, as not so funny, it is probably because we are not familiar with the way gays re treated in Brazil. It seemed to me that most of the comedy centers on Mauro as a hysterical "drama queen" or on Roger who comes across as an annoying "mother-in-law" type.

There are serious themes here as well- violence against homosexuals, the exemplary role of the adult, a self-centered and inconsiderate Internet culture. Most of the plot is on the surface so one does not have to think about the movie as he watches, rather the viewer can just sit back and enjoy the movie. That old standard phrase "sexual orientation" is from where most of the humor comes (as well it should). If there is one character that is deserving of our empathy, it is Rodrigo who is really struggling with his sexuality as well as with his first physical sexual experiences and through him we see sensitivity.

I really like the way coming-out is shown regardless of age, body-type, social status and behavior. Alexandre Carvalho has done a fine job directing.