Vale Abraão (Abraham’s Valley)
Posted by martinteller on September 5, 2010
It was mere coincidence that I watched two movies in a row that rely on heavy narration. Unfortunately, this one has massive amounts of it, and furthermore, Netflix’s DVD is dubbed in French. So my viewing experience may have been tainted by that. I found the narration exceedingly annoying, it sounded much too “heavy” and “poetic”, like a wannabe Alain Resnais. I have to wonder if it would have had the same effect in the original Portuguese. Assuming the translation is reasonably faithful, I doubt I would have enjoyed it any more. A bunch of bourgeois bullshit, unrelatable characters prattling on and on about nothing to do with real life, humorlessly waxing philosophical about vague concepts and unburdened with the practicalities of day-to-day living. And lots of literary references designed to allow the cultural elite to nod knowingly. After three hours (THREE HOURS) with Ema, I didn’t feel any more enlightened about her than I did at the beginning. It was really quite boring. When the narrator would shut his stupid piehole, I would occasionally start to get involved, but eventually he’d start chiming in again with his — I hate to use the word, but sometimes it’s appropriate — pretentious nonsense. The cinematography was pleasant, but nothing special. A real yawner. Rating: 3
