Hard Labor

Brazilian filmmakers Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra offer a strange mix of horror-thriller and social commentary in this odd film set in São Paulo. The narrative follows strains on a relationship after Otávio (Marat Descartes) abruptly loses his job and his wife Helena (Helena Albergaria) becomes the breadwinner as the owner of a small grocery store. Otávio's life turns into a series of humiliations as his efforts to secure a new job fail, and he is only able to gain work as a telemarketer trying to sell insurance to indifferent customers. Helena has her own problems: a new housekeeper hired to watch their daughter is not the dream employee, and her grocery store workers are less than honest. Meanwhile, a peculiar harsh odor is coming from a wall in the store and a neighbor's barking dog seems agitated by something within the building. Unfortunately, Hard Labor, which screened at the Cannes Film Festival's Un Certain Regard competition, has two stories going on that never truly mesh into a satisfactory whole, with the eerie store elements being the less successful of the rival plots. Optional. (P. Hall)