Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 35
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 3
Chico Teixeira's steady hand and unblinking, sympathetic eye -- along with Carla Ribas' breathtaking performance -- make this portrait of working-class Brazilian life extraordinary.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 12
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 1
Chico Teixeira's steady hand and unblinking, sympathetic eye -- along with Carla Ribas' breathtaking performance -- make this portrait of working-class Brazilian life extraordinary.
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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 494
The personal and romantic peccadilloes of a Brazilian household come to light in this melodrama. Alice (Carla Ribas) works in a beauty salon and tries to keep her house in order with the help of her mother (Berta Zemel), though with four men in the house it's no small challenge. Alice's husband, Lindomar (Zecarlos Machado), is a surly cab driver who is also the father of her three sons, Lucas (Vinicius Zinn), Edinho (Ricardo Vilaca), and Junior (Felipe Massuia). Lucas has inherited his father's
Jan 25, 2008 Limited
Jun 23, 2009
Vitagraph Films
All Critics (35) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (32) | Rotten (3)
Nothing much happens in Alice's House, and a turning point in the plot is terribly contrived, but as sociology and maybe even a pilot for a soap serial, the movie is worth a look.
Even though it sounds awfully depressing, there's something moving about watching people go at their lives with everything they have -- or don't have.
Like a Brazilian telenovela unfolding in real time, the film fans its cards out slowly until we can see for ourselves the deck is stacked.
Teixeira elicits extraordinary performances from his entire cast.
Writer-director Chico Teixeira, who started out making documentaries, watches from afar as his middle-class characters go about their day-in, day-out activities, most of which revolve around sex.
Some stories, Teixeira is wise enough to realize, are best left unadorned.
Contemporary life in Brazil as seen through the eyes of one working class family.
Filmmaker Teixeira, a veteran documentarian, keeps Alice's world on a short, ultra-realistic leash.
Builds a quiet portrait of a family step-by-step imploding. Such a sympathetic depiction of working-class families are rarely seen on screen from any country.
First-time director Chico Teixeira, an accomplished maker of documentaries in Brazil, brings a similar nonfiction feel to this melodramatic milieu, which is kick-started when Alice contemplates having an affair of her own with a former sweetheart.
Alice's House is character driven, and the performances are key.
mia ap' aytes tis tainies poy den se noiazei an emfanistei enas pistolas apo to dipla gyrisma na toys gazosei oloys, arkei na teleiosei. Kai telika, kapos etsi ginetai.
Very well-acted, especially by (Carla) Ribas, this is a tense drama of friendship, family and deceit that explores a wide spectrum of raw emotions.
[The] restrained, elliptical style, focused on details rather than confrontations, and the nuanced performances make this house a home.
Teixeira brings his camera into her home and quietly records the details of her daily life. The result is a carefully observed film about one woman's growing dissatisfaction.
[Director Chico] Texeira's ordinary characters have a quiet genuineness and clarity that is rare anywhere in movies these days.
Although the characters are steeped in the culture of telenovelas and voodoo superstition, Alice's House is a subtly flavorful slice of life rather than a steamy potboiler.
The capable cast, director's documentarian past and ambient soundtrack heighten the film's real-life sensibility, perfectly capturing the working-class life of a São Paulo family.
In her first leading role, Carla Ribas joins the fast-growing ranks of middle-aged Latina actresses whose performances resonate with a beguiling mixture of emotional complexity and sexual maturity.
In a remarkably assured, no-frills feature debut, Brazilian documentarian Chico Teixeira draws a vivid portrait of marital and familial dysfunction.
Ribas has justifiably won a shelf of awards for her portrayal.
The juiciest bits happen off camera, yet their consequences are riveting, thanks in no small measure to sympathetic performances by Carla Ribas and Berta Zemel.
In "Alice's House," Alice(Carla Ribas), the mother of three sons, lives in a cramped apartment that also includes her mother(Berta Zemel). Her husband, Lindomar(Zecarlos Machado) is a cab driver who is carrying on with a neighborhood teenager, Thais(Mariana Leighton). Their oldest son, Lucas(Vinicius Zinn) who is 21,
February 10, 2008Super Reviewer
Un interesante recorrido por la amalgama de emociones, secretos y frustraciones de una familia de estrato popular latinoamericano. La doble moral y egosimo humano expresado en un contexto familiar. Una direccion exquisita y una Carla Ribas alucinante. Totalmente recomendable!
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