Não Por Acaso

Following on the same device as used in Amorros Perros and Crash, Not By Chance uses a car crash to thread two stories together. In a car accident in Sao Paulo, a man and a woman in a car hit a girl and then crash, all three people getting killed. We then follow the lives of the girl's boyfriend and the former partner of the woman in the car. If there is a common thread in the two stories it's difficulties in communication: between the girl killed and her boyfriend and the daughter of the woman killed and her father. This is, however, a very loose thread and the two stories really look as they belong to two different movies.

Not bu Chance is, however, always interesting and very well acted. It does not quite achieve the fluency of the aforementioned films in neatly tying up these stories together but it's a welcome diversion from your usual Hollywood movie.