When you approach a movie with a title such as The Two Deaths Of Quincas Wateryell you don’t know quite what to expect but you hope for the best. When that film is described in the accompanying blurb as “a Brazilian Weekend At Bernie’s!” you start to feel that hope fading. Thankfully, although that description is an apt one it also falls short of the mark of summing up this delightful little film.
Adapted from the Brazilian novel by Jorge Amado, the movie begins with the death of the main character, Quincas Wateryell (played by Paulo Jose). Stop rolling your eyes and thinking this is a spoiler. It isn’t. Because this movie is about a life seen through a pall of death, a way to finally appreciate and enjoy everything that life has to offer. The daughter of Quincas is a young woman named Vanda (Mariana Ximenes) and, knowing the life that her father led, she simply wants to get the body buried and to avoid any further potential embarrassment. But Quincas has some loyal friends who don’t want to let their friend stay dead without first taking him out for one last night of drinking, carousing and all of the good stuff that he enjoyed throughout his life.
Written and directed by Sergio Machado, The Two Deaths Of Quincas Wateryell benefits from an assorted cast of quirky characters played by some great actors who seem to be having a lot of fun. The pleasant eccentricities of all involved reminded me a lot of the early works of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, great films populated by great characters.
The gentle humour of the piece, juxtaposed against the squalid surroundings and the sleazy establishments, makes it easier to swallow everything even as we get a couple of unbelievable character developments (concerning Vanda and her husband, played by Vladimir Brichta) and some obvious points made about being free and true to yourself throughout your life.
A movie with a number of flaws but it’s also a very enjoyable film deftly mixing light and dark in a way that Weekend At Bernie’s never did.
The DVD features a fun-filled, enjoyable featurette that runs for about 27 minutes. It covers numerous aspects of the film-making process and also squeezes in some amusing scenes in which actors discuss their endeavours not to be upstaged by an onscreen frog. There’s also a trailer.
The Two Deaths Of Quincas Wateryell is released on 1st August here in the UK and is worth coffin up for.
DIRECTOR: SERGIO MACHADO
STARS: PAULO JOSE, MARIANA XIMENES, VLADIMIR BRICHTA
RUNTIME: 104 MINS APPROX
COUNTRY: BRAZIL
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