City of Men (2007)

At times this movie is very powerful and really makes the reality of Brazil's slums come alive. The characters struggle with broken families and shattered dreams, and join gangs because there are few other realistic options. Even though the film is fictional, it is sad to see because there is truth behind it.At other times the movie feels very ham-handed, as the characters deal with themes that have been in many movies before. Fathers who come back, sons who push against them. Most of the characters are not well-defined and lack depth and motivation.I would recommend the movie, but it is not as good as some other Brazilian films about life in the favelas, namely City of God.

Terribly disappointed with CITY OF MEN after being swept away by CITY OF GOD. Lost is the exciting and unpredictable storyline, and instead, in its place, is bland predictability with the obvious attempts at audience manipulation by a superficial pretentious production and distribution team. This story ended up feeling like a sappy soap opera rather than a gritty indie feature, which is what is should have been. This is what happens when distributors try to seek a wider audience (ridiculous sweeping shots of the Rio coastline, etc) at the expense of a gripping story and characters. I really couldn't care what happened to any of the characters in this film - they were all so 2 dimensional. In short, sad waste of potential that should have been a slam-dunk following the exceptionally inspired CITY OF GOD. Boo!

"City of Men" is a feature film version of a blockbuster series that ran on Brazilian TV from 2002 to 2005. It is also a sequel of sorts to the earlier "City of God," an award-winning movie directed by Fernando Meirelles.Paul Morelli's "City of Men" focuses on Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) and Acerola (Douglas Silva), two honorable teens who are struggling to make a decent life for themselves in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. The former is searching for the father he's never known, while the latter is only beginning to learn what it means to be a father to his own son. Their personal story is set against the backdrop of a violent turf-war between two rival gangs that are battling it out for preeminence in the city."City of Men" reveals its origins as a TV series in the novelistic approach it takes to storytelling and character development. From the beginning, we feel as if we have been thrust into the midst of a story "already in progress." With little explanatory background, the screenplay (by Elena Soarez) introduces us all at once to a multiplicity of characters, whose relationships with one another we are forced to pick up almost on the fly as it were. This allows us to become both an observer of and an active participant in the drama that unfolds.Certainly, one of the most important characters in the movie is the city itself, since it is this very environment of poverty, hopelessness and violence that, in large measure, determines the kinds of lives these people will lead and the types of futures they will have.Morelli's directorial style is up-close-and-personal in the more intimate moments, and vivid and exciting in the pulse-pounding "action" sequences. The sense of immediacy that he and cinematographer Adriano Goldman bring to the work acts as an effective counterweight to some of the more melodramatic elements that creep into the screenplay towards the end.With excellent performances and a surprising amount of optimism given its generally depressing milieu and setting, "City of Men" is a tale of friendship and adult responsibility that will move the spirit and touch the heart.

In the slum in Morro da Sinuca, a couple of days before turning eighteen year-old, Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) tells his best friend and also orphan Acerola (Douglas Silva) that he misses his unknown father. Acerola decides to help his needy friend to find his father and they discover that he is in prison convicted for killing a man during a robbery and near to be released on parole. Meanwhile, Acerola's wife and babysitter Cris (Camila Monteiro) is invited to work in São Paulo and she sees the chance to raise money to buy a house of her own; she tells Acerola that he must take care of their son Clayton alone for one year. When the owner of the hill and Laranjinha's cousin Madrugadão (Jonathan Haagensen) is betrayed by his right-hand Nefasto (Eduardo BR), he is expelled from the slum and Laranjinha and Acerola have also to leave the hill. While Madrugadão plots a plan to invade and recover the hill with the support of the gang of the drug lord from Morro do Careca, Acerola and Laranjinha unravel the past of their fathers."Cidade dos Homens" follows the success of "Cidade de Deus" showing the life in one of the slums of Rio de Janeiro through the personal drama of the two lead teenagers, having as background the war between the rival gangs. The story is very realistic and the cast is amazingly natural in their performances, therefore the work of the writers and the director Paulo Morelli are awesome. The cinematography is also top-notch, with landscapes from the hill and well-choreographed and impressive action scenes in the slum. The producers certainly have an agreement with the real drug lords and owner of the hill to shoot this great movie. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Cidade dos Homens" ("City of the Men")