Upstairs/Downstairs
A beautiful performance makes up for an also-ran story in The Second Mother

September 23, 2015, 12:00 am
By David Riedel

Brazilian star Regina Casé is absolutely wonderful as Val, a maid whose 13-year employment under Bárbara (Karine Teles) and Carlos (Lourenço Mutarelli) is threatened when Val’s estranged daughter Jéssica (Camila Márdila) shows up to attend university in São Paulo. Jéssica doesn’t accept her mother’s role as a domestic and what she sees as poor treatment, while Val is mortified by what she views as Jéssica’s sense of entitlement.

Both mother and daughter have a point. Val receives some shoddy treatment over a birthday gift she gives to Bárbara, who also has the pool drained and cleaned after Jéssica swims in it. But Jéssica acts like she owns Bárbara and Carlos’ home from the moment she arrives.

The Second Mother’s upstairs-downstairs tale won’t win points for originality. The predicaments that arrive along with Jéssica—the matriarch is threatened, the patriarch is smitten and the son (Michel Joelsas) is somewhere in between—are standard upper class-lower class fare. But who needs originality when a movie is this beautifully acted and filmed?

It’s a long shot, but Casé should be a contender for every major acting award we have in the United States. Her performance is perfect, even when the screenplay isn’t.

THE SECOND MOTHER
Directed by Anna Muylaert
With Casé, Teles and Márdila
The Screen
R
112 min.

Fonte: Santa Fe Reporter