Drama
Brasil 1994 - 91 min.

Starring: Rae Dawn Chong - Carlos DellaBella - Martin Kemp (Reb) - Martin Sheen

Director: Walter Avancini - T. Lamarca - S. Werneck - Z. King (Wild Orchid)

Script: Ed Silverstein

Production: Zalman King Prods

Music: Richard Feldman - Midge Ure - Adam Gargoni

Rating:

J.J. (R.D. Chong) is an experienced American reporter who tells her tale about an investigation she has done about missing streetkids in Brasil. When she first arrives in Rio her old lover and cameraman Reb (Mart) helps her to get in touch with the local 'Godfather' Boca, who introduces J.J. to life and crimes in the slums. With Boca's help J.J. finds out about the connection between rich local business men and the missing children. These business people organize actual death squads to 'clean' the streets, as begging and stealing street kids mean bad business. It's too late that J.J. realizes that Boca hasn't helped her out of pure humanity, he also has just business interests, most of the slaughtered kids worked for him and so he's after the main business guy to get even. Only when J.J. is caught between all fronts in the final showdown she sees how she's been used. She can only escape alive with the help of a CIA agent (Martin Sheen). Unfortunately Reb is not as lucky and dies the tragic death of a hero that saved his leading lady!

The one thing that strikes you when you see this movie is that it's a strange mixture of semi documentary footage, thriller and softcore eroticism. For one, the plot is not bad, but when the end titles come you are left with a rather annoyed feeling. The underlying serious topic (the fate of slum children in South America, which is a huge real life problem) is only touched very superficially and mixed with highly unsuitable sex scenes that hardly do anything for the film. Also it's a bit hard to swallow that such a tough and experienced journalist can be as naive. Noteworthy is Martin Sheen's performance, he only has two scenes in the film, but he definitely makes the best of it! Mart's character Reb never really comes to life, basicly because he hasn't got a lot of scenes in the film despite the fact that he's the male lead. The explanation for this might be found in a little anecdote Martin told us about the movie. Aparantly the Brasilians kept one role of film for 'ransom' because they wanted more money from their US partners, but those pulled out of the project, so that in the end the producers had to make a film with only two thirds of the material they shot. Knowing this it makes sense that material from other sources was cut into the original film, like scenes from a local documentary called 'Boca de ouro' and clips from 'Wild Orchid'. Technically it's a rather well done film, with some good performances but on the whole it leaves you unsatisfied. Considering the circumstances though it might be an achievement that they got the film completed at all!

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