The Story of Fausta

Director Bruno Barreto's (Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, Gabriela, Amor Bandido) latest venture is a bizarre, earthy comedy that wins and then loses audiences with its main character. Fausta (Betty Faria) is a zestful woman saddled with a lowlife lazy husband named Joao who loses his job in the quarry when a rock lands on his foot. Fausta, who works as a cleaning woman, takes Joao's predicament in stride, ridiculing and reviling her husband in equal measure. For no real reason, she accepts the invitation of the elderly Mr. Ze to go out on a date. Thus begins a reasonably funny relationship which Mr. Ze, a widower, keeps going with drinks, perfume, and promises of money. But about halfway through the film, as Fausta begins to really leech off her elderly suitor, we begin to lose sympathy for her semi-poverty, dead-end marriage situation. Eventually, Mr. Ze, in order to maintain the relationship with Fausta gives her all of his money, so that she can buy a house. In the end, Fausta gets what she wants, but only the most radical of feminists would be happy with the conclusion. Most others would be sick of her totally self-serving (and borderline psychotic) treatment of the other people in her life. Not recommended. (R. Pitman)