DONA FLOR AND HER TWO HUSBANDS Movie Review

Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos

Dona Flor (Brazilian natural resource Sonia Braga) becomes a widow when her husband's womanizing and drinking and other bad habits finally causes the simultaneous expiration of most all of his organs. She's glad to get rid of the bum, and remarries—this time to a respectable, tasteful man who's moderate in all things. It doesn't take long before Dona Flor wishes for the return of husband number one, and in director Bruno Barreto's lively, brainless fantasy, she gets her wish. A novel by Jorge Amado was the basis for this hugely successful film, which out-grossed Ghostbusters in Brazil. It was a hit in the U.S. too, at least on the art house circuit, and one might conceivably attribute this to Sonia Braga's numerous, highly energetic sex scenes. The movie's pretty bad, but the American remake, Kiss Me Goodbye, starring Sally Field (yes, in the Sonia Braga part), was worse. It was so serious and self-important (and sexless) that it made me long—just like Dona Flor did—for the dirtier, raunchier, less responsible fun of the first one.

NEXT STOP … Gabriela, Belle Epoque, Lovers

1978 106m/C BR Sonia Braga, Jose Wilker, Mauro Mendonca; D: Bruno Barreto; W: Bruno Barreto; M: Chico Buarque. VHS, LV FXL, IME, TPV