THE STORY – A Brazilian mob family wants to get out of their criminal enterprises, but instead ends up digging deeper and deeper.
THE CAST – Leandra Leal, Pêpê Rapazote, Gustavo Arthidoro & Irandhir Santos
THE TEAM – Fernando Coimbra (Director/Writer)
THE RUNNING TIME – 123 Minutes
The opening title sequence to the Brazilian film “Carnival Is Over” explains that there is a “Syndicate” looking over three crime families in Brazil. The point of this conglomerate is to keep the territorial peace between the mafiosos, as they split up territories not to deal drugs or own dance clubs but instead to operate illegal slot machines that suck the life and wealth from underground denizens. This setup appears to announce the film as a quirky, spitball comedy. After all, who could imagine that gangs would get violent over slot machines? So, when the film slowly but gradually descends into some strange version of “The Departed,” you will be forgiven for thinking you were taken for a ride.
When “Carnival Is Over” begins, a well-to-do Brazilian couple inhabits a cliff-perched patio of their postmodern Rio home, undertaking a renovation. Regina and Valerio live there, but Regin’s the one puffing a cigarette and looking longingly into the beautiful bay sunset. A masked stranger with a knife approaches her from behind and appears to rape her. Suddenly, Regina wraps the belt of her bathrobe around her attacker as if shocking him. It is her husband, and they are playing some sick psychosexual game of cat and mouse. There may have been a fairer introduction to this bizarre movie.
The couple has come into additional wealth after Valerio’s father, a mafia Don, recently died under mysterious circumstances. The two suspect foul play that Valerio Sr. was shot in the head by his twin brother, Valerio’s uncle, who is now the patriarch of the family’s third of the crime empire. This information is another supposedly promising morsel in the film’s beginnings. The mystery of what truly happened to Valerio’s father could be a reason to watch, in addition to the bizarre Nip/Tuck-like sex scene at the beginning.
But the wheels soon come off. The couple is grotesquely dislikable. Regina wants to spend more, more, more, more money on her luxurious renovation. Valerio announces he is out of cash. To escape this conundrum, he suggests asking his uncle to buy out his share of the slot machines. She suggests a bigger cut. After the uncle inexplicably murders one of his bodyguards in cold blood, the duo sees a chance and similarly off the uncle, stashing him in between the walls of their architecturally stunning renovation.
The plot of “Carnival Is Over” only gets stranger and stranger. Regina has her cards read by a fortune teller who tells her an opportunity is brewing. As it turns out, the woman is Regina’s mother, whom she pays to read her fortune. Much later in the movie, in one of the many moments in which it tries but fails to be truly funny, the mother tells Regina that what she meant was that the opportunity was to give the mother more money. Regina misinterpreted it as an opportunity to commit more crimes and kill more people because she’s the one to complete her renovation — which is fated to be splattered in blood.
One critical piece of information arrives during this preposterous card reading. The mother turns over a sinister picture of a man hung upside-down from his feet. It says “the Hangman,” and the mother proclaims to her daughter that this is the card of “Os Orcados,” or the “The Hanged.” The English translation defaults to “Carnival Is Over,” a phrase uttered much later in this meandering, frustrating film, to signal the moment where the bloodshed, betrayal, and mistrust creep into the beautiful home and turn Valerio and Regina against each other. It is as predictable as it is uninteresting.
Some films reach for greatness or at least establish it. Think “Bonnie & Clyde,” for example. Others merely try to emulate the former. But ultimately have little to contribute. This is the unfortunate case of “Carnival Is Over,” for whom the honeymoon is, indeed, over.
