City of Men humanizes slum in Rio de Janeiro
While the gang battles provide most of the movie's action, the stories of Ace and Wallace provide the majority of the drama. As Wallace tracks down his lost father, a story unravels involving both his and Ace's father and the past generation of gangs from the Hill. This narrative is simultaneously surprising and predictable: surprising in what we learned transpired between their fathers when they were young, yet predictable in the emotions that this knowledge elicits in Ace and Wallace.
This is one of the pitfalls of City of Men. Throughout the movie character development happens in the blink of an eye. For a movie where the focus is on the characters, it is unfortunate that their emotional development seems contrived. This is not the fault of the actors, who flawlessly portray the young adults who are at once intimately familiar with tragedy and pain, yet also innocent. In City of God the characters do not learn leading to the cyclical and intergenerational nature of urban crime. The humanity presented in City of Men, on the other hand, lends a sense of optimism and hope to the challenges that seemed impenetrable in the previous film.
The cinematography reflects this shift towards a more character-centered movie. Like its predecessor, the film is imbued with color. Despite the violence and poverty that plague the neighbor that is the movie's stage, it is also a place that is vibrant. The viewer gets a visceral feeling of the locale through the aerial shots of Rio, a city that is part a sprawling urban center and is also part jungle. The beach and party scenes, too, reflect the liveliness of Rio. However, the shots are less rushed and fast paced. The camera often dwells for a prolonged time on its subjects, grating the audience more access into the characters' internal constitutions.
The strength of City of Men is that it not only tackles the plight of poor neighborhoods in Rio, but does so by humanizing the various characters, both the heros and the gangsters.
This is one of the pitfalls of City of Men. Throughout the movie character development happens in the blink of an eye. For a movie where the focus is on the characters, it is unfortunate that their emotional development seems contrived. This is not the fault of the actors, who flawlessly portray the young adults who are at once intimately familiar with tragedy and pain, yet also innocent. In City of God the characters do not learn leading to the cyclical and intergenerational nature of urban crime. The humanity presented in City of Men, on the other hand, lends a sense of optimism and hope to the challenges that seemed impenetrable in the previous film.
The cinematography reflects this shift towards a more character-centered movie. Like its predecessor, the film is imbued with color. Despite the violence and poverty that plague the neighbor that is the movie's stage, it is also a place that is vibrant. The viewer gets a visceral feeling of the locale through the aerial shots of Rio, a city that is part a sprawling urban center and is also part jungle. The beach and party scenes, too, reflect the liveliness of Rio. However, the shots are less rushed and fast paced. The camera often dwells for a prolonged time on its subjects, grating the audience more access into the characters' internal constitutions.
The strength of City of Men is that it not only tackles the plight of poor neighborhoods in Rio, but does so by humanizing the various characters, both the heros and the gangsters.
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