This engaging Brazilian drama, the first narrative film directed by documentarian Chico Teixeira, takes place in a working-class San Paulo household upended by sexual and emotional betrayal. Weary Alice (the luminous Carla Ribas) leaves her mother (Berta Zemel) to do the routine cooking, cleaning, and washing, while she works as a beauty-parlor manicurist, and her loutish, ill-tempered husband (Zecarlos Machado) drives a taxi. Alice also has her hands full with three teenage sons, each of whom struggles in his own way with various aspects of adolescence. After a leisurely first half spent introducing and limning characters, Teixeira kicks the story into gear when Alice has a fling with Nilson (Luciano Quirino) and learns that her husband is sleeping with underage girls. Such plot twists in a Hollywood film would be highly provocative, but Brazilian popular culture takes a more casual approach to sex; in fact, one of the most interesting sequences occurs after a stranger rubs up against Alice on a bus: she enjoys the moment and later recounts the incident with just enough embellishment to make it seem even more sexy. A solid character portrait, this is recommended. (E. Hulse)
Alice's House
IndiePix, 92 min., in Portuguese w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $24.95 Volume 24, Issue 5
Alice's House
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