Far from One's Eyes

"Longe da Vista" is the story of an old Portuguese conman who writes letters to an American-Portuguese man pretending he's a woman. The film tells his story as he makes acquaintance with his new cellmate, who becomes his partner in the letters writing.

It is above all a story of solitude, multiple solitude. Everyone is lonely in this film: the prisioners, obviously, but also the main character's sister, the cellmate's girlfriend, her clients at the sex-line service, the American Portuguese and so on.

Joao Mario Grilo, a talented yet too rigid director, tries to link all these peoples' solitudes but the film fails to develop good characters (with the exception of the main character, a superb performance by Canto e Castro) and seems at times too attached to its metaphoric content.

Still, a pleasant film, from a director whose films, while never being masterpieces are always worth seeing.