Ana Katz’s slow burning family comedy-drama evolves into an affirmative tale about the protagonist, Lucrecia, played by Mercedes Morán. Lucrecia and Pedro (Gustavo Garzón) have gone to Florianópolis on a family holiday which is not all it seems. Lucrecia and Pedro, both psychoanalysts, are actually separated, using the holiday as a means to see if their relationship has any chance of rehabilitation. Something both seem to rapidly decide is unlikely, as they embark on romantic liaisons in the tropics, ironically with another separated husband and wife team, Marco and Larisa. The family holiday trope is rounded off by their daughter enjoying a fling with Marco’s son, Julian.
The mood of the film, set on Brazil’s lush Atlantic coast, veers away from the melodramatic towards the meditative. Lucrecia’s journey through the film is one of gradual acceptance and reconciliation with her fate. It’s a measured, likeable performance, although from this viewer’s perspective the film was unbalanced by the fact that Pedro, her husband’s character, an ageing clown, remained underdeveloped, meaning that their relationship, and the pain of their separation, never felt completely convincing. Nevertheless, Sueno Florianópalis is a family holiday movie with a twist, that gives a limpid insight into the differences between Brazilian and Argentinean culture. The south’s wistful dreaming of tropical delights; a brief escapism which the Argentine family embraces before it has to return to the day-to-day realities of Buenos Aires.
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