Butler's Cinema Scene

Sonia Braga

“AQUARIUS” My rating: B

140 minutes |MPAA rating: R

On one level, “Aquarius” is about growing old…or older, anyway.

Kleber Mendonca Filho’s film stars Sonia Braga, the Latin American sex symbol of the late ’70s and early ’80s, as a 65-year-old widow living in a Brazilian coastal city.

With its late-in-life-but-still-vibrant leading lady, “Aquarius” seems poised to fall into familiar territory, that of an older woman proving to herself and others that she’s still got some fire down below (see Blythe Danner in “I’ll See You in My Dreams” or Pauline Garcia in the Chilean “Gloria”).

And the film works just fine on that level. It unhurriedly follows Braga’s character, Clara, through the ins and outs of her daily life  — drinks with the girls, time spent with children and grandkids, friendships with the other residents of her beachfront neighborhood…even a hot encounter with a male gigolo recommended by a gal pal.

But there’s a whole lot more going on.

On a second level the picture is what might be called a real estate thriller. Clara is the last remaining resident of a low-rise apartment condo — the Aquarius — whose units have been bought up by a big construction firm. The plan is to raze the old edifice and go with a sleek new skyscraper…except that Clara refuses to sell her condo.

Money isn’t the issue. Over decades she has made her life in this building. Her apartment offers a safe, familiar refuge from a world that is increasingly drifting toward the thuggish and brutal.

Her former neighbors are less enthralled — they won’t get full payment for their now-empty apartments until Clara signs on the dotted line.

Bit by bit Clara finds herself under siege. The vacant apartment above hers is now the scene of sex orgies. She returns home one day to find the place overrun by the members of a fundamentalist church.

The passive-aggressive developer (Humberto Carrao) overseeing the property apologizes but it’s pretty clear he’s trying to make life so unbearable that Clara takes his offer.

On a third level, “Aquarius” is about class and status and the fallout of the baby boomer years. The very name Aquarius, after all, echoes with references to the hippie-dippie late ’60s era of love, peace and understanding.

The college-educated Clara, whose career was that of a pop music critic, has a cerebral side quite alien to her loyal cook/housekeeper Ladjane (Zoraide Coleto), who lives  in a working class neighborhood that is more favela than fancy pants.

This multifaceted approach to the material makes “Aquarius” thematically rich, and somewhat emotionally perplexing. On the one hand Clara is our  heroine….on the other, she’s a spoiled member of a privileged generation who dwells in the past and has little interest in the present (she eschews digital music for a library of old LPs and doesn’t even bother keeping up with contemporary news).

And the film’s long running time is exhausting.

Holding it all together is Braga’s seductive performance. It’s not quite accurate to say she’s luminous here, for there’s an earthy quality that grounds Clara and makes her seem very much of this world. But whatever qualities made Braga a star decades ago are still inn play.

Love her Clara or not, this is a fully realized characterization.

| Robert W. Butler