This 12 months’s Golden Globes nominees for finest efficiency by a feminine actor in a movement image (drama) included 4 Oscar winners in Angelina Jolie, Nicole Kidman, Tilda Swinton and Kate Winslet, an excellent comeback story in Pamela Anderson — and the acclaimed and radiant Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres. When Torres’ work in “I’m Nonetheless Right here” was announced as the winner, it might need come as a shock to audiences who’re extra acquainted with the opposite names on the record, however I wouldn’t name it an upset, as this is among the finest performances of the last decade thus far in among the finest films of the last decade thus far.
To invoke the cliché, you owe it to your self to expertise this film. With the singularly gifted director Walter Salles (“Central Station,” “The Motorbike Diaries,” “Darkish Water”) on the helm and a remarkably vibrant and pure solid led by Torres, “I’m Nonetheless Right here” is a superb political biopic that provides simply attributable to a dissident who surrendered his life in resistance to the army dictatorship in Brazil, however is primarily centered on the spouse, mom and activist who should maintain her household collectively.
Primarily based on a real story, it is a tribute to the power of a matriarch who doesn’t have time to grieve or really feel sorry for herself. She has kids to like and shield.
Filmed in gauzy, period-piece, early Seventies tones, with the occasional second lensed by the perspective of a handheld Tremendous 8 residence film digital camera, “I’m Nonetheless Right here” performs like an prolonged reminiscence, as if we’re seeing all the things by the recollections of somebody trying again on essentially the most pivotal interval of their life.
It’s Christmastime in Rio de Janeiro, the place the previous congressman Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello, terrific) has returned to his household after six years in self-exile after he was ousted from the federal government through the revolution. Rubens and his spouse Eunice (Torres) reside with their 5 kids — 4 ladies and a boy — in a contented, bustling, upper-middle-class residence simply throughout the road from Leblon Seaside. It’s the type of home the place music is enjoying, books and art work are in all places, friends usually cease by, and Eunice’s well-known soufflé by no means disappoints.
The early sequences are virtually achingly idyllic, as we see Eunice floating on her again within the water, ladies dabbing Coca-Cola onto their pores and skin as a tanning lotion as they gossip, a spirited recreation of volleyball, and the youngest Paiva youngster, Marcelo (Guilherme Silveira), scooping up a stray canine and working residence to announce he’s adopting it. (The movie is predicated on Marcelo’s e book of the identical identify, with Murilo Hauser and Heitor Lorena delivering an award-worthy display adaptation.)
All of it appears so pretty, however there are indicators of the army dictatorship throughout. Helicopters within the sky, military convoys rumbling down the streets, studies on the information of the Swiss ambassador’s kidnapping. When daughter Vera (Valentina Herszage) and her buddies are returning residence from a film, they’re detained and searched by authorities who shine flashlights of their eyes, searching for dissidents. Rubens usually meets with associates behind closed doorways, with envelopes usually exchanged. It’s clear he’s concerned in resistance actions, although Eunice by no means asks questions.
One evening, severe males come banging on the door and demand that Rubens include them for questioning. Eunice and her daughter Eliana (Luiza Kosovski) are finally introduced in as effectively, with Eliana launched after in the future, whereas Eunice endures almost two weeks of brutal situations and harsh interrogation in a darkish and dank jail cell earlier than she is launched and returns residence, telling the kids their father will quickly return as effectively — although she already is aware of Rubens is sort of actually by no means coming residence.
Fernanda Torres carries the movie with an astonishingly resonant efficiency that conveys a world of feelings with out ever delving into theatrical histrionics. Eunice has a singular relationship with every of her 5 kids, tending to their particular person personalities and strengths and vulnerabilities with a mom’s unwavering love and understanding. Because the years go by, Eunice returns to regulation college and turns into an advocate for human rights, crusading for justice, campaigning for the popularity of disappeared people comparable to her husband.
We soar ahead to scenes set in 1996 after which in 2014, with Torres’ mom, the good Fernanda Montenegro, enjoying the older Eunice within the remaining sequences, and a bunch of great actors taking over the roles of the grown kids. We will see how the now prolonged unit that features spouses and companions, kids and cousins, is full of life and love.
The disappearance and loss of life of Rubens Paiva was an unfathomable loss for this household, however they flourished by the generations, in nice half as a result of Eunice wouldn’t have it some other approach. “I’m Nonetheless Right here” is among the finest movies I’ve ever seen in regards to the energy of household.
