Linha de Passe | Review

Assimilating many of the social problems that plague the inner urban fringes of Sao Paulo into one portrait, directors Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas re-team for a dramatic ensemble piece that emphasizes the global pandemic of fatherless children and negligent mothers, and in the same measure don’t intend on a formula that crams the extremes in one sitting. At times, Linha de Passe is a practically devised, predictably mapped out tragi-drama that places its characters in moments of inconsequential misadventures, — as they say, “boys will be boys”, but they aren’t always up to no good. Despite the gimmick approach of flip-flopping each character’s destiny, the filmmakers do a good job in tagging a sense of purpose to each individual storyline without turning this into a sermon about third world problems. More than half a century after Vittorio de Sica’s Miracle in Milan, a little fantasy sprinkle in dire situations means that sometimes the way out of the favelas is not through violence and criminality, but diminutive moments of parlaying hope into that one moment for opportunity.

Set up as a project with multiple point-of-views, the screenplay bases itself the hundreds of thousands of kids from Brazil’s poorer parts that are headed towards the same fate. Here the matriarch of the family is an ardent soccer fan, and who like many Brazilians see the nation’s favorite pastime as a religion, but as a mother, she has perhaps kept the factory open for business for too long. This passion of hers is transferred into her eldest son (played by actor Vinicius de Oliveira who was the centerpiece in Salles Central Station) – a character who despite his talents never managed to make the most of his chances. Quickly following him in the age department is his faith based bro who initially practices what he preaches and the cash-strapped sibling (third in the chain) a motorcycle delivery boy who keeps borrowing time before taking on responsibilities. The youngest boy among the brothers is closer to the newcomer who is far from becoming an adult. His storyline basically sees him place all his eggs in one basket, desperate to find his father, he searches the bus transit system and turns up empty, but his last move is to bring attention to himself displays the instinctual smarts that one needs in order to keep their head above water.

A well photographed picture, the grainy look of worn out locations merges well with a cast made up of mostly non-actors and thus gulps in a huge air of authenticity. The title refers to a soccer term where the two players who make a pass to another without letting the ball drop. Years of practice make this difficult physical maneuver seem easy, but what this references is the family support system that does look out for one another, but ultimately with family unity being an obstacle, each is left to fend for themselves.

The film’s strongest suit is that there is place for the mundane and a timeline that allows for the narrative to follow the daily charge of their lives, while interconnecting the hopefulness and hopelessness that pushes the youth to find an exit strategy that will better their lives. Unlike, Salles’ recent dip into international waters with Dark Water and The Motorcycle Diaries, such a model as Linha de Passe is definitely less flashy and more modest and won’t attain a critical consensus like Salles’ Central Station, but there is enough here to counterbalance the extremely negative portraits that come from the same pockets and sectors.

Reviewed at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival (Section: Main Competition)

May 17th 2008.

114 Minutes

Rating 3 stars