De Onde Eu Te Vejo

Focused on a niche, the movie made right the universal

by Renato Hermsdorff

The first impression is not what counts. When Ana Lúcia (Denise Fraga) opens the
window and starts to talk with the camera (the viewer) in the first minutes of De Onde Eu Te
Vejo, it makes us expect a long episode of “Retrato Falado” – an old weekly Fantástico’s
attraction, on Globo TV, about everyday real life situations starred by the same actress and
directed by the same Luiz Villaça (to whom she is married). He is responsible for the command
of both productions.
If we look a little closer, we’ll see that it is not like that.
The plot centers on the couple Ana and Fábio (Domingos Montagner) which, after 20
years of relationship, starts to live in different buildings, but one in front of the other,
separated by the street. At the same time, their daughter Manu (Manoela Aliperti), in age to
applicate to college, is about to leave home.
And what would be the central conflict? If will they get back together or not? It doesn’t
matter. The best part is going along the situations that sometimes are dramatic but mostly are
comic with a touch of melancholy between the lines in the script written by the director,
Leonardo Moreira and Rafael Gomes.
In most part of time, Ana (who is obsessed with news and proposes the divorce) and
Fábio (who accepts the decision) fight like teenagers and pretend scenes of jealousy. It would
be ridiculous (at least, there would be big chances to be) if weren’t Denise and Domingos
(excellent in his first important part on cinema).
The actors work with an incredible verisimilitude in their characters’ profile with help
from the convincing script. It would be unfair not citing Manoela Aliperti, who is Fraga-Villaça’s
partner in the series 3 Teresas, in GNT channel. She is a great discovery in the movie.
Although De Onde Eu te Vejo was practically filmed on studio and there weren’t
actions scenes in its production or a fantastic universe, we can say it’s a surprise. The success
of the visual effect’s team was an uncommon camera movement in national cinema. With
underexplored angles, the result was very beautiful to see on screens.
Ironically, São Paulo city is used (a lot) with delicacy to punctuate the story, mainly
through architectural bias and urban transformations – and shows up in the picture as honoured
without making an effort.
But there are problems in the "romantic comedy." And the problem occurs just when the
focus is taken away from the couple and daughter dynamic. Beyond the hilarious participation of
Marisa Orth as thea couple’s friend, the characters of Marcello Airoldi (a possible love interest
for Ana), Laura Cardoso (a lonely lady who resists speculation) and Juca de Oliveira (as the
owner of the cinema), for example, come in appealing way to strengthen the central conflict and,
therefore, insert situations that force the production to give up the prevailing finesse in the
thematic approach.
In the end, however, with technical accuracy and smoothness in the count , which De
Onde Eu Te Vejo is the portrait of a needy public representation in the national cinema screen
(the middle-aged couple on the verge of seeing the empty nest), and yet, it is an emotionally
accessible movie to all ( really all ) type of audience .