Read the review of 45 by Segundo Tempo, Luiz Villaça’s new movie

Aside from the pitfalls of nostalgia, the fact is that in adolescence we retain many of the formative experiences not only of our adult identities but also of our frustrations. The freshness of youth is always enhanced by the freedom of the many opportunities that naturally disappear over time. So using what could have been but wasn’t as a sanctuary for today is treacherous.

45 of the second halfthe director’s latest film Luiz Villaca (De onde Eu Te Vejo), uses a friendshipsaving plot as the basis for a sensitive carpe diem message that counters precisely this nostalgic escapism. Sensitive and thoughtful, the long stretches of humor of the unusual dip into a very human and believable emotional crescendo that ends in recurring dramas of modern everyday life. In structure and content, the staging mimics the journey back from the fantastic to reality, but suggests that this awakening process need not be just a painful rupture.

Who embodies this idea is Pedro (Tony Ramos), a chaotic restaurant owner who is very proud of his Italian heritage and finds himself in a crisis, old and a bachelor, when his business seems to collapse forever. When he understands that there is no longer any reason to live, he decides to choose a good day to commit suicide if all goes well, with that Palm trees Brazilian soccer champion and warns two friends from 40 years ago he met based on a report: Ivan (Cassio Gabus Mendes), a lawyer for wealthy fat cats, and Mariano (are france), a priest in a crisis of faith.

The surprise at the career choices of the two, the former a militant antisystem idealist, the latter a firstrate unwhisperer, just doesn’t overcome the oddness of a late reunion. When he first sees his friends, Pedro still treats them as if they were the same guys he used to play football with in traditional São Paulo high school. Dante Alighieri. The two, embarrassed by the dissonance between what they were and what they have become, somehow go with the flow and embrace the farce in the hope that it will be enough to change the suicide’s plans.

Despite the years apart, it’s almost symbiotic how this whole cycle of lies brings the trio back together, complemented by Pedro’s dishonesty with himself. More than trying to convince Ivan and Mariano that he’s in making decisions about his own life As determined as he is calm to end, Ramos’ character wants to convince himself that he is not being overcome by despair, sadness and loneliness. And that the attempt to establish a final contact with two people who have shaped him is not a cry for help, but an invitation to enjoy.

So the trio set out dysfunctionally to delve into an unreal past, visibly tainted by the blurred vision of nostalgia, but ironically forcing them to even more painfully confront whatever is wrong in the now. 45 do Segundo Tempo carries the nostalgia of flight but reveals it as an alarm. An overly romantic view of yesterday makes today so unbearable for Pedro, Ivan and Mariano that only two logical answers emerge from this pain: resignation or death. Since one of them has already made his choice in advance, the decision is left only to the other two.

And that’s where the screenplay signed by Villaça and Leonardo Moreira, reveals its greatest strength: the healthy injection of a certain cynicism into the typical romantic idealism of dramatic comedy. When 45 do Segundo Tempo comforts and inspires with a beautiful message, as is customary in the genre, it does so not without recognizing that part of life’s beauty lies in the pains we endure and the mistakes we make overcome, but that it is a human right. That is your own value judgment you can even choose to end this cycle. Rather than directly confronting the question and positioning suffering as an obsession, the film replies with a caution: Nobody has to go through it all alone, and until the whistle blows, there’s still time to change the game.