The Second Mother (2015)

This movie is based around a live-in servant Val and the three people she serves: the father, his daughter and her son. Despite living in the same house as her three masters, Val is very subservient and looked down upon. She does not swim in her master's pool, does not eat at the same table as them, nor does she eat the same food. Val's life is turned upside down when her daughter Jessica comes to stay in order to sit the university entrance exams; a university that is only for the elite. Despite her mother's insistence and pleading, Jessica refuses to conform to the role of servant's daughter with interesting consequences that are not stereotypical.The second mother is beautifully done. The acting is superb. The story is told elegantly showing not just the injustice of class, but presenting it for the ugly beast it is. What I particularly liked about it was that Jessica's role was not overdone and stereotyped. The character was not deliberately being antagonistic, she was simply being herself and that meant refusing to conform to class social norms. If you get the chance to see this film I urge you to do so.

There's no getting around it, The Second Mother is just an excellent, excellent film, which cleverly balances multiple tones and issues while at the same time staying consistent, enjoyable and heartbreaking. The mother of the title is Val (a deglammed Regina Casé), a woman from rural Brazil who has spent the better part of her life as a combination of housekeeper and nanny to a wealthy family. Though she has a daughter of her own, for the most part she has spent her maternal feelings on Fabinho, the spoiled teenage son of her employers. When Val receives a call from her daughter, Jéssica, telling her that Jéssica intends to study for exams to become an architect, Val is thrilled and overwhelmed. She asks her employers (who also house her) if Jéssica can stay with her, and when they say yes she is hopeful that the mother-daughter reunion will go well. But Jéssica's arrival exposes the fact that for all her employer's posturing that Val is one of the family, she is actually subservient, having to obey various rules and codes that constantly put her in her place. And Jéssica's arrival completely throws off balance the simple life Val once led. To say more would be to spoil the movie, but Anna Muylaert is such an assured director and the way she handles her material is fresh and clever.

Val is the live-in maid for an affluent family in São Paulo. Dona Bárbara is the boss. Her husband José Carlos is a failed artist but the family's money is an inheritance from his father. Their only child Fabinho has been raised almost entirely by Val. She is essentially her mother. She is "almost family". Her biological daughter Jessica is almost 18 and raised by her relatives. She arrives to stay with the family while she takes the University entrance exam. She is outspoken and starts causing friction in the home.There are some insightful and comical characterizations. There are a couple of minor problems. Carlos asking Jessica to marry him is awkward. It's not funny although there is a point to it. I just think it could be done better. The other point is Val standing in the pool. It would have been a great moment to end the movie. The last section drags on and on. There is a story element that gives the movie poetic symmetry but in the whole, it's better to end it on a high. This is an interesting movie with interesting characters.

Que horas ela volta is one of the best magical realism movie from our time. The main argument of this movie is about social relationships, familiar and professional ones, and beyond a sociology analysis of Brazilian society. The movie has a strong social message because is so close to the really, and so daily habits, we are used to social segregation in the same house, we forget it is so bad, and unfair with ourself. The movies leave us to think about basic things, for example, how different opportunities low and middle class has to access university, and how small habits can have a huge impact in the future.The movies support his vision not in a philosophical phrases or beautiful quotes, but in reality, everything in the movie is so real and close to ourself that director don't need use Foucault or Marx text, he just show a mirror of the reality, and it is way this movies is about magical realism, but not realism magical. And it is why hurts.