There is a wonderful mix of nostalgia and melancholy to Filho's The Secret Agent, a film that ends up being about displacement and persecution. Moura captures a sense of tragic heroism in his lead character searching both for his past and future. But there are some narrative choices that were a bit jarring for me that made it not quite come together, despite some wonderfully empathic moments exploring the journey of those pushed out and to the edges.
Filho's film is beautiful. Filmed in lovely pastel/sepia inspired tones which give the story a sense of being from another time. He crafts his story through a number of wonderful characters, from the somewhat cartoony corrupt police to the ragtag community and their benevolent matriarch and her wonderful oddness. This gives our hero a world to live in as his story plays out that is both rich story-wise but also full of emotional depth. There are moments of real power that stuck with me.
Still, I struggled with certain ways Filho told his story. For example it was an odd choice to fram the story through modern researchers' eyes despite the fact they wouldn't have any way of having all the information we are shown and choosing not to introduce them until midway through. Following them from the beginning or revealing it all as their work at the end might have made sense but the sudden inserting of their presence midway just felt awkward. There is a strange fascination with a leg in a shark which the film later cartoonishly turns into a joke part way through and this took me out of the story as well as made me feel there was a bit of a homophobic tone to that sidebar. There is a quite jarring switch to violence in the film that doesn't feel consistent with the tone of the rest of the film, like it was tacked on. These weren't the only odd choices made in the story telling but they all together took away from the emotional impact of the rest of the film.
So for me The Secret Agent had its strengths and weaknesses. Moura and the raw emotional core were strengths. I liked how the film presented a rather less than optimistic ending, asking us to wrestle with the way these struggles don't always end up as heroic triumphs over evil and sometimes even become forgotten. But I also wished the film had found a way to integrate its different impulses in a way that worked more consistently. Still I know I will be reflecting on certain thoughts that is left behind for its audience and that in itself makes it worth watching.
The Secret Agent
Starring: Wagner Moura, Udo Kier
Writer/Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
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