FILM REVIEW: LOWER CITY

By Michael Wilmington

Chicago Tribune Movie Critic

3 stars

"Lower City" tells a familiar story with an emotional intensity and a high eroticism that makes a lacerating impact. Set in modern Brazil, in Salvador and other Bahia state cities, it's about a violent triangular romance among a stripper, a boxer and a thief. The film's first-time director (and co-writer), Sergio Machado, may be retooling the oft-told tale of how two friends fall apart over a woman who loves them both, but the treatment and style make it fresh.

The three main actors - Lazaro Ramos and Wagner Moura as best friends Deco and Naldinho, and Alice Braga (Sonia Braga's niece) as their mutual lover, Karinna - give full-throttle, commanding performances. And the movie, shot with a roaming camera in a semi-documentary style, always gives them a real background.

The whole feel of "Lower City" is fast and spontaneous. Ramos, who gave a great performance as the transvestite criminal/entertainer in Karim Ainouz's "Madame Sata" (which Ainouz co-wrote with Machado), plays an entirely different kind of role here, but just as effectively. Deco is a quiet boxer who is the more solid of the two friends. Moura, Ramos' close friend in real life, plays the more mercurial Naldinho, who has a good heart but a blazing temper that tends to keep the buddies in hot water. Braga's Karinna is both sensual and open-souled.

The story begins when the two pals, who run a small boat together, pick up Karinna and carry her toward Salvador, trading transportation for sex with her along the way. In one stop, the friends get into a brawl after a cockfight; Deco saves Naldinho's life and kills his assailant. But then jealousies begin to bubble up over Karinna.

On the run, they all resettle in Salvador, but the sex becomes hotter, the friendship more frayed and explosive. Machado and his actors very skillfully show how people like this live at the edge and nearly die there.

"Lower City" makes use of the kind of exploratory-rehearsal approach employed more often by stage directors. The film's acting coach is Fatima Toledo (who worked in similar ways for the directors on "Pixote" and "City of God"), and her rehearsals obviously had a huge impact. The performances of "Lower City" throb with life.

As in "Sata," Machado and Ainouz (with Toledo's help) show sympathy for their characters without sentimentalizing them; they charge nearly every scene with searing sexuality and occasionally, a hint of homoeroticism.

I saw "Lower City" first at a Cannes Film Festival "Un Certain Regard" sidebar screening in 2005. It didn't stand out at that festival, which was loaded with good, strong, ambitious pictures. But it does make an impression during the doldrums of our current movie season, among weak or annoying movies (from previously good filmmakers) like "Lady in the Water" and "Clerks II." "Lower City," produced by Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries"), is a good film, not a great one. But that's exactly what the cinema should give us more often.

"Lower City"

Directed by Sergio Machado; written by Machado and Karim Ainouz; photographed by Toca Seabra; edited by Isabela Monteiro de Castro; production designed by Marcos Pedroso; music by Carlinhos Brown and Beto Villares; produced by Walter Salles and Mauricio Andrade Ramos. In Portuguese with English subtitles. A Palm Pictures release; opens Friday at Landmark Century Centre Cinema. Running time: 1:37. MPAA rating: R (strong sexual content, nudity, language, some violence and drug use).

Deco - Lazaro Ramos

Naldinho - Wagner Moura

Karinna - Alice Braga

Luzinete - Maria Menezes

Drug Store Clerk - Joao Miguel Leonelli

Sirlene - Debora Santiago