It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

A distraught father, Mario (Nuno Lopes), establishes for himself a Sisyphean task wherein every day he meticulously repeats all the mundane activities he did the day his 3-year-old daughter, Alice, went missing. He is guided by the notion that Alice would somehow gravitate towards those places where they spent their last moments together, just like a magnet. He ensures that if she ever does come back, he wouldn't miss it.Though it is a rationale that seems a bit far-fetched and too much to expect from someone barely a pre-schooler, the people around Mario sees this and others even dare to point out its futility, all of which he just nonchalantly shrugs off. Even his wife, Luisa (Beatriz Batarda), an inconsolable nervous wreck and seen most of the time slumped on their bed, still has some lucidity to question the unusual methods of his search.Mario's unyielding spirit is the focus of this film, a well-rounded performance from Lopes, a grieving figure seen most of the time handing out missing-child pamphlets of his daughter to motorists and passersby. Then his self-imposed ritual has him visiting different places, apartment flats, shops and building rooftops to collect the cassette tapes of the surveillance video cameras that he has been permitted to install. He then scours those numerous tapes simultaneously at the end of the day to search for any signs of Alice, all with varying degrees of success. Success, in his case, is him being able to spot anyone remotely similar to a small kid wearing the same blue coat that Alice wore the day she disappeared, those images he then captures and prints and painstakingly document. Such are the tasks which he has to do again the next day and so forth. Some might call that just downright stubborn, others an unwavering sense of hope, which is the thing that drives the narrative of the film. Not even the obsolescence of the equipment seen used by the protagonist robs it of its effectiveness in conveying allusions. Seeing some blurred low-resolution image of a kid he suspects might be his daughter goads him to continue on with his routine, because if faith is indeed capable of moving mountains, perhaps it could pick up a giant boulder and make it disappear.Marco Martins brilliantly rendered, in equal parts, the sullen and the sumptuous cityscape of downtown Lisbon. All praises for infusing that imagery with the playful motifs from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and the somber musical score by Bernardo Sassetti. These elements contribute in eloquently evoking the melancholy of modern-day urban living. An outstanding debut film, if not an unforgettable depiction of someone's gloom.Another of Martins and Lopes' later collaboration, an examination of the impact of the 2010-2014 Portuguese financial crisis on the lives of ordinary people is the drama São Jorge (2016), which somehow is in the same vein as this film, also inspired by real events as stated in the film's end credits, providing a cinematic snapshot of what issues a family goes through when faced with such a devastating loss that hasn't any form of closure.Nothing can amplify the tragedy for the viewer even more than what follows that scene in police station after Mario and Luisa finally decides to report the disappearance and learns about the limits of what that office could provide in their search for Alice.My rating: A-plus.

After several suggestions, I decided to see a contemporary Portuguese movie. My first! How can I resume the movie? A guy films the route he made in the day he's daughter was kidnapped and collects the tapes, to see them. Between this, he's with his wife, two friends and in the theater (he's an actor). I'm wrong, this isn't a resume. This IS the movie.The highest moment is the following dialog, between the guy and his wife. Keep in mind that the dramatic intensity is the SAME from the beginning to the end:. "Wife (W): How do they make these potatoes all the same? Guy (G): Huh? Sorry. W: The potatoes. How do they make them all the same? G: I do not know. With a machine? W: OK, with a machine. But where are the smaller parts? G: I do not know ... I do not know ... W: Today, Alice is four years. Did you know? ...(few seconds of silence)... W: I wish I had a house full of people... ...(a few more seconds of silence)... W: They are all the same... They use a machine, do not you think? "And this is the last film I'll see contemporary Portuguese in my life.

First of all the version of 'Alice' that I watched was a DVD copy shown on a big screen, in a local film festival. The color was pale and breached. The film may as well be in B/W as far as I was concerned. I suspect the original 35mm version carries much better visual quality and would have enhanced my liking for film quite a bit.I have not seen many Portuguese films in the past and regard this to be one of the well-directed and well-acted films from Europe. As a parent, I can relate to the agony and motivation of the parents portrayed in 'Alice'. My still-single friend, on the other hand, also watched the film but did not find the story engaging. But I do.The ending was well done, although I wish it was done with a more positive note. But, as in real life, not all endeavors result in a happy ending so I really don't have a problem with that.Overall, I find it to be a solid film for serious film-goers. Parental experience would heighten the viewing experience, I believe.

There is much to be said about this one. It's fantastic to be able to appreciate such a picture, to live the moment where this finally happened. I don't know much about M.Martins, i hadn't heard of him before this one (and practically no one had). i also don't know what he'll do next. But i put this one along with a very few number of "difficult to get better" first tries by any director (a list with titles such as "a bout de soufflé" or "citizen kane").The city is the theme. Forget the story. It is there. Period. It serves the purpose of grasping a city hardly seen on screen before this. Period. that's all there is to say.So this succeeds where "Ossos" and "O fantasma" had failed completely; in showing Lisbon out of clichés, of preconceived warmed up imagery's. Time goes on, cinema has to catch it. This is catching up with time.This brings the city to zero ground. The screens (how many do we see during the film?) that belong to Lopes's character are the white canvas where actions draw themselves, in blue. The camera (an experimenting young director, says me) tries to fetch them, tries to make them eternal, all the scenes, everywhere. Lopes (the actor, real life and in this film) tries to get to them, he participates, he can even show up in front of a camera, but he can never control it. So, the actor as a pawn, constantly exposed, never in control. This is cinema, and Mário (Lopes) understands it the moment he sees 10 times his face on the screens of a store. He also performs a play, a comedy, inside the play which is the film. Double manipulation. Great material! He is an actor, manipulated to appear the way this visionary director wants, and he plays an actor, who is forced to perform something he is not the least interested in, to be able to proceed with his other function, which he thinks he controls, but he doesn't.The camera can be "god", a character, or it can grab a character and follow it. The camera can be the spectator, our curiosity moving around. Here, the camera is a mood, a spiritual landscape, such as the music. It's a dot placed on the infinite. So it doesn't matter if it focuses or unfocuses, or what it focuses, first or second plan, cars pass in front, also people strange to the scenes (every people are strange here). "Freewill" framing, apparent chaos, apparent "no man" camera. This is the true quality of Alice. All so contemporary, all so apparently chaotic, still, everything controlled we don't know how, nor by whom. This is Lisbon.Still, i don't hold the optimism (nor the skepticism) of the common Portuguese cinema buff. I don't watch this one as "the new path that will improve Portuguese cinema for good". One film, especially on this author basis, doesn't change a hole (inexistent) cinema industry. But i do think that, from a cinematic point of view; this is worthwhile, and has a place on the top of my shelve.Dialogs subtle, right, rigorous. Music may be the only apparition of the missing Alice. Photos, flyers and even Alice herself don't count. This is one of the best minimalist soundtracks ever. Glass would make Koyaanisqatsi differently if he could have seen this first. But than again, this is so much better than Reggio's living-death tail of industrialization.The city is blue, so is Alice's coat, he's always seeking blue... and failing to find it. Think about. You should watch this along with "Lisboetas". This one first.My evaluation: 5/5 fantastic cinematic essay.P.S. - I just feel pity that watching the making of and the extras makes me feel that this was all luck, and no one involved gave a single thought to what i just said. I wish the extra material could be more useful than just curious (it could be both).http://www.7olhares.wordpress.com