Review of The Second Mother (2015) by Leonardo C — 06 Dec 2015

It's a lovely tale of motherhood and reconnecting with a loved one that was taken from your life and have to start over in your relationship. Regina Case is quite delightful in this and in a weaker year she could have pulled off a surprise nomination that fellow Brazilian actress Fernando Montenegro pulled off in 1998 for Central Station.

Camila Mardila is also great as the daughter. Both Case and Mardila have great chemistry together and pick up the relationship dynamics right away as if time never moved on. The actors that played the family Case works for were also great most notably the son played by Michel Joelsas.

I wish we got more scenes with him with Case and with Mardila as he added a nice extra layer to the title of this movie. Case is a second mother figure to everyone in the house do their chores, being there for them when emotional, and looking out for their best interests and I think that was particularly strong with Joelsas' character and a few extra scenes with those two would have been nice to see.

The screenplay is great though with most foreign films I see in theaters I get swept away to the point that it is effortless to read the subtitles while watching the action and there were several times I couldn't juggle both.

I can't wait to see it again on DVD or the inevitable Netflix release to just sit back and watch the action. This is Brazil's submission for Best Foreign Film at most award shows and I would be happy to see it included.