AQUARIUS – Review

Sonia Braga as Clara in AQUARIUS. Photo credit: Victor Jucá / CinemaScópio © 2016

Sonia Braga is marvelous as Clara, an iron-willed 65-year-old retired music critic who refuses to be forced out of her seaside condo by a developer planning to replace her aging building with a luxury high-rise, in the Brazilian drama AQUARIUS.

Aquarius is the name of the apartment building in Recife, Brazil, where Clara lives, as well as director Kleber Mendonca Filho’s drama. The developer plans to demolish the iconic mid-century Aquarius and replace it with a high-priced luxury condo building, as has been done other older buildings in this prime beachfront location. The company has bought all the other units in the building and only Clara now remains.

Braga looks, by turns, weathered, strong, vulnerable and still sexy, as this fierce, complicated woman. Director Filho gives Braga the space to round out this multilayered character, creating a moving, fascinating character study in which we explore the many facets of this person. Filho also skillfully touches on the link between place and identity, and on the too-casual erasure of history as the new replaces old, whether buildings or technology.

The latter is highlighted in a scene where music expert Clara is being interviewed for a profile article, and argues for the authenticity and unexpected tangible benefits in physical objects like vinyl records, while acknowledging the convenience of digital music. The scene illustrates both Clara’s world view and the director’s considerable story-telling skill, in this fine, intelligent film. The drama touches on themes of gentrification, destruction of historic locations, class and racial divides, profit over people, and Brazil’s own version of crony capitalism. But mostly, it is a portrait of a particular strong woman, demanding respect for the past as well as for herself, a person who knows the power of not backing down.

The widowed Clara lives alone in her large apartment, in comfortable retirement, with a long-time housekeeper Ladjane (Zoraide Coleto) sometimes coming in to help. While Clara’s apartment is beautiful inside, with large windows and elegant decor, the outside of the turquoise-hued mid-century Aquarius building does look like another era. Still the beach side location makes this valuable property. When the owner of the development that is company buying up the condos in the building arrives at her door, along with his handsome grandson Diego (Humberto Carrao), they are polite and respectful. Offering what they say is more than the market value of her condo, they attempt to win her over, telling her about the new, high-end luxury development, dubbed the New Aquarius, they want to build on this prime location. But they also tell her everyone else has already sold and moved out, and Clara is the sole holdout. Although Diego, who is in charge of this project, tries to charm her, there is something vaguely ominous about telling she is now alone in the building. Nonetheless, Clara tells them she has no intention of leaving the home where she raised her children and lived with her now-dead husband.

Clara’s friends and family encourage her to sell, seeing it as inevitable, but she is adamant about staying. Maeve Jinkings plays Clara’s daughter Ana Paula, who has a difficult relationship with her mother. Scenes with Clara and her friends and family tell the story of her life and illustrate points about modern Brazilian life.

Having turned down their offer, the developers become cool towards Clara and unsettling things start happening in the nearly vacant buildings. Employees of the company bring in mattresses, and then invite in a bunch of beach bums for an orgy in the apartment above her. Noise, vandalism and other incidents follow, in what seems to be a program of harassment. Her one ally seems to be a government-employed life guard, Roberval (Irandhir Santos) whom she has befriended on her many visits to the beach. Still, her family stand by her in the end.

The film illustrates life in contemporary Brazil but has universal themes as well. In the U.S., Clara would be out the door thanks to eminent domain but things seem to be different in Brazil. Or maybe it is simply because Clara was once a famous writer, and therefore someone who needs to be handled with more tact.
This is the apartment where the widowed Clara raised her children, where she strolls to the beach daily, and where she has every intention of staying until she dies. The stance is one for both personal history and the cultural history of the spot, as other buildings of the era vanish. It is also Clara’s stance against a society that seems focused on shuffling away older people into retirement homes, away the mainstream of life. Clara, however, is very much alive, and remains a vibrant part of the world, connected to friends and family, still exploring the possibilities of love and life.

Clara’s life and personality are revealed throughout the film. The developers don’t know who they are dealing with. Clara takes no guff, and seems fearless although she is clearly upset by some of the things that take place in the near-vacant building. Clara gets her steely backbone from her Aunt Lucia (played by the striking Thaia Perez), a ’60s activist and counter-culture pioneer, who appears in an early scene that also touches on Clara’s own early battle with breast cancer.

Braga gives a brilliant performance in this film, perhaps one of her best. The film is a skillfully told exploration of issues impacting modern Brazil as well as the rest of the world, told in a moving cinematic way and dotted with lushly beautiful photography. The film’s one flaw is perhaps its ending, a bit abrupt and not as satisfying as one might hope. Still, the is so much to admire in AQUARIUS, that it is a minor point, and it is still an intelligent, thoughtful film built around a remarkable performance from the legendary Sonia Braga.

AQUARIUS, in Portuguese with English subtitles, opens in St. Louis on Friday, Oct. 28, at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema.

Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 stars