The human heart and its insatiable desires of fullfillment form the movie's main idea of two lonely souls who'll find ways and means to get what they
desire the most. In "That Damned Meat"), a hungry hick (Adilson Barros) has a constant desire to eat beef after spending ages just eating rice, beans and
flour. And there's a young woman (Fernanda Torres) who devotedly prays to Saint Anthony to get a husband, but since he doesn't attend her requests immediately
she keeps on cursing his statue, throwing it away or putting under water yet the statue keeps coming back intact and "reacting" to everything.
But it all changes when those poor desperate souls finally meet and thanks to a scheme from the girl she finds a way to get married with him and help
him with his request of having the most wanted beef, even though both of them are not the smartest people you'll meet and that's when confusion sets in.
I was amazed that this in fact was an original work, cause since I remembered hearing about some plot details of the movie I was reminded of the folklore
legend of Bumba Meu Boi which also deals with the insatiable need of eating ox meet (in that story, it's a pregnant woman who convinces her husband to get
the meet by killing his boss ox and then as a revenge the poor man was turned into an ox himself). And the movie also uses of some supernatural and folklore
elements as well - with the presence of Curupira early on - which makes for a surreal experience at parts, very humored.
It's an OK movie, greatly acted by all members of the cast, being Dionísio Azevedo as the absent minded girl's father being the most enjoyable and
funniest character in the picture. It's a funny movie but not spectacularly hilarious or highly memorable, it's mildly amusing and it really knows how to
present a story without any excesses or absurdities; and gotta admit I was a little lost with the countryside slangs. There's so many of them used plus the
poor quality of sound made the film a slightly difficult experience at times.
Other than that, I had a good time with it and felt a great deal of relevance
when it comes to reveal the human nature and its desires when one doesn't have much means to get what they want and what they need, yet one can fight for such
desires, dreams and needs, get exactly what they want and don't feel disappointed afterwards. It was fun to see the misadventures of such good-spirited poor characters. 6/10.
