Waste of time

Sadly Over-hyped

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Overwhelming! I could not stop think about what I had seen in those delicate, deep images for a long time past I saw the movie. The commitment of director Luiz Fernando Carvalho in putting together all the emotions, conflicts, expectations of those characters is so moving that it is impossible not to embark on that journey, to follow his eyes throughout those bodies, that landscape. The light is so poetic, the frames seem literally like paintings in motion. The way the director captured in images the poetry of the novel makes him one of the most talented filmmakers ever. Luiz Fernando Carvalho is, surely, a gifted sorcerer of this special art. Carla Madeira

I agree with most of the reviewers when they say that it's a masterpiece. Nevertheless, I also agree with some others that say that non-Portuguese speaking viewers won't be able to understand completely the extreme lyricism and romanticism (true romanticism - not cliché) of the movie. There's plenty of poetic monologues/dialogues, what brings beauty to the movie along with the rich and majestic screenplay and the exotic soundtrack.Differently of other spectators, it didn't take much of my patience to watch it. I had a pretty delightful experience. Sometimes I though the movie was going to come to an end, but every new second of projection made me more pleasured. It kept appealing to my feelings until the last moments. When it was not the erudite dialogue, it was the landscapes or the living colours that surprised and aroused me.Lavoura Arcaica is actually a book written by Raduan Nassar, son of lebanese immigrants which folklore are somewhat depicted in the movie. Nassar studied law and philosophy in São Paulo, what made me notice some decisive influence of contemporary philosophy in the movie. André is a heideggerian youngster while his father is a strict rationalist and traditionalist person. Well, it's better I stop now before I start spoiling the movie. You must watch it! For me, it was a joyful experience. Hope you like it too!

This is, without a doubt, one of the best movies I have ever seen. It is a spectacular example of the new brazillian movie-making!It is a technically perfect movie, with a brilliant cinematography and a masterful photography. The scenes are very well built and the director truly owns this movie. Of course, it derives from one of the masterpieces of recent literature, Raduan Nassar's impressive novel.I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and have to disagree with Flavio Velames comment, complaining about it being too erudite. There's only such thing if a movie is pretensious, which is obviously not the case: this movie breathes honesty. There are already enough "common" movies being produced around the world to commit the crime of discarding this one for not being "common". Not all movies are supposed to be for the audience to have "fun". Some of them (the best ones) are supposed to enchant you, as this one does.Keep up the extraordinary work, Luiz Fernando Carvalho! I had the opportunity of attending the screening of this movie at the Film Festival Rotterdam 2002, where Luiz Fernando spoke. Enlightening. True art and true artist. Thank you.

Saw this at HIFF 2002, Helsinki, Finland. 2 hours and 40 minutes seemed a bit much to me too, as to this is no film to enchant and suck you into the story. Extremely beautiful, but literal, heavy, and in the end: boring. Reminds me of the finnish theater tradition... I haven't read the book. Perhaps I should, as to the story in itself seems strong and interesting enough. Only the writer of the screenplay doesn't seem to have thought about the audiences not familiar with the novel. Perhaps it's also a culture thing. Still, I can't say I regret watching this film.