City of Men

Review By: Brian DePasquale
BrianDePasquale @TheCinemaSource.com

Four years after the success of City of God, Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles returns with a new tale from the streets of Rio de Janeiro. He produces this time around, handing the director chair over to Paulo Morelli who handled three episodes of the television series of the same name. The movie is less ambitious than its predecessor, with the writers opting for a smaller story that pays more attention to individual characters than the society that breeds them. The results are inspired, but less engrossing than the original.

City of Men follows the lives of two best friends, Acerola and Laranjinha and their struggle to maintain a peaceful lifestyle in the war-laden favelas of their city. Acerola is caught in a lifestyle he does not want, fathering a child he does not mean to have and marrying a woman he does not love. Laranjinha is on a quest to find the father he never met. Together, they learn important lessons about fatherhood in a world overrun by drug crime, senseless violence, and poverty.

While City of God discusses the latter mentioned themes explicitly, City of Men forces them into the background of a story that lacks the conviction and moral maturity it desires. The film is hindered by patches of contrived melodrama, culminating in a Romeo and Juliet style showdown that positions the two boys against each other in rival drug gangs. Thoughts on fatherhood and lost companionship are composed too simply and brought to closure in a way that does not seem to fit the nature of the story being told. Sub characters such as drug leader Midnight lack the same personality possessed by such powerful figures as Li’l Ze or Knockout Ned in the first film.

While the previous film was a masterpiece in rhythm and timing, City of Men feels oddly out of shape. The powerful imagery is still present, but less bold. The film contains the same bleached out guerilla style cinematography, but lacks a passion. The plot’s structure still neatly plays with temporality, but without the same level of experimentation, void of swagger and expertise. Instead of deep treks into the story’s past, we get tiny glimpses of forgettable details from the TV show.

Most of the technical elements of the project pale in comparison to its big brother, but City of Men survives well enough because of the performances by the two lead actors. The situation is helped by the fact that performers Darlan Cunha and Douglas Silva have been playing these roles for eight years and are well-attuned to their environment and with each other. The chemistry on screen between Acerola and Laranjinha carries an emotional weight that few characters are able to possess in City of God. The writers stick with personality long enough ...