05/28/10 - Brazil

Brazil (1985, 132 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/

This was another film I'd wanted to check out for a while. It didn't really fit in with the older noirs that I wanted to watch this month, but I was more in the mood for a something modern so it worked.

The film stars Jonathan Pryce as Sam Lowry, a worker for the government. Through an error, the government accidentally arrests and kills the wrong man, leading Lowry to try and sort out the mistake. Through this he meets Archibald "Harry" Tuttle (Robert De Niro), the man the government really wanted to investigate and Jill Layton (Kim Greist), a woman that appears in Lowry's dreams. Serving in other roles are: Mrs. Ida Lowry (Katherine Helmond), Sam's mother; Mr. M. Kurtzmann (Ian Holm), Sam's boss at the start of the movie; and Jack Lint (Michael Palin), Sam's friend who also works for the government.

Brazil is a cult classic it seems so it falls into a weird gray area. I feel like if someone says "I hate Brazil" they are greeted with a look of disdain for "not getting it" or something. I get the impression that film people like Brazil for the reason that you're not allowed to hate it. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Anyway, I'll preface the rest of my comments with this: I hated Brazil.

There were two main factors to why I hated the movie. The first is the genre. Brazil obviously wants to explore deep themes through satire. The film can do this without trying to be funny in my opinion. Catch-22 is a good example of a film that plays up satire without constantly resorting to jokes. On the other end of the spectrum is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb which goes completely with the comedy route. Brazil tires to do both and this isn't the way to approach the subject in my opinion. Especially for the first hour or so as the film sets up the plot it resorts to cheap gags and silly gimmicks. Yet throughout all this there's the hints that this is a "serious" movie which makes the jokes come off as bland. Stuff like Mr. Kurtzmann opening and closing the door can be funny when they aren't just shoved in my face. There's quite a few other examples here where the film starts off with a good joke but then destroys it with overkill. For example, when Lowry is ordering steak from the restaurant near the beginning there's a funny exchange where the waiter demands he say the number for what he's ordering. Instead of just joking about this a few times, the joke is dragged into being far bigger than it should be and thus distracting from the scene. Frequently during the first hour or so of Brazil I feel like the movie is telling me when to laugh by having all these jokes. However, after this time period, the movie has gone on long enough so as to be able to set up a decent plot for the rest of its length. Now we move into more serious territory where jokes aren't allowed. So now there's no humor at all as we have a serious story. This complete reversal in how the film is telling the plot leaves just a void where there should be a good storytelling.

The second big problem I have with Brazil is the characters. Lowry does absolutely nothing for me to want him to succeed. I can't recall a movie in recent memory where I honestly could have stopped the movie at any given moment and been fine not knowing the ending of the story. One main problem with this is the stupid dream sequences. The whole "I see this girl in my dreams" thing could have been conveyed in a more standard way that better fit the story in my opinion. Whatever this samurai thing is sure doesn't work and just ends up complicating the plot for no reason. Other characters are equally unlikable: Harry, Jill, Jack Lint. I just don't care what happens to anyone. It goes along with the above statement where I could just stop the movie wherever. Does Harry live at the end? What happens between Sam and Jill? Does Jack end up being a good guy to Sam? Who cares. I think the only character I actually liked was Mr. Kurtzmann and I think a big factor in this was that he seemed "real" while all the other characters seemed like toys in some big game or something, completely devoid of real personality. Also, Holm is hilarious in the role so that didn't hurt.

Overall, I gave this film a 2/10. Brazil avoids the 1/10 rating because it actually has production value. But I define a 2/10 film as "on the verge of becoming unwatchable" and one that "tries and fails." This is exactly how I would describe Brazil.