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Aquarius Movie Review

Aquarius is a 2016 Brazilian drama film directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho and starring Sonia Braga. It’s an overlong, but very good film.

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“I’d rather give you cancer than having it myself“

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Clara, a 65-year-old widow and retired music critic, vows to live in her apartment until she dies after a developer buys all of the units around her. The movie above all else deals with the the theme of associating your entire existence with a certain place. I truly related to Clara as I myself have trouble letting things go such as places, rooms or houses. It’s ultimately an irrational fear, but it’s something many people deal with at some point in their lives.

Clara herself is a wonderfully developed character. She is definitely too harsh and unlikable at times, but it’s expected from her situation. The movie is also interesting for portraying women of an older age still being sexually inclined and active. That was done in a tasteful, terrific manner with the sex scenes all working surprisingly well.

The central performance from Sonia Braga is so superb that it ranks among the best of this respected year. She sold all of her dramatic as well as emotional moments, and she successfully brought to life this rather this very complex woman to life.

Aquarius unfortunately has one big issue that prevents the movie from ever reaching greatness and that is its length. I continue to be perplexed at the directors’ choices to prolong their movies to the extremes, and this is certainly the case with many international features these days. This film had no reason to be this long (two and a half hours), and thus it felt hugely repetitive, especially in its second half where the pattern of certain similar scenes quickly emerged. It was so unnecessary.

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The film is well made, very well shot and it features strong dialogue and themes. It could have been a bit more emotional, though. But it’s still a solid effort from this director, much better and more palatable than the overrated ‘Bacurau’.

Aquarius is excessively long, thus leading to a lot of repetitive scenes in the second half. Still, it’s a thematically interesting, dramatic film that develops its main character so well while featuring an outstanding performance from Sofia Braga.