There's an undeniable directness to the picture - a brisk, steady pace over these 62 minutes, and a brusque curtness and declination of subtlety. Those characteristics apply rather equally to Lambert Hillyer's direction, the acting, the plot progression, and the writing and orchestration of each scene. At the same time, some scenes go on a surprisingly long time without advancing the narrative, providing character insights, or having any major significance. By the time 'The girl in Rio' is half over it seems to have gone almost nowhere, and meaning no particular disrespect to those involved, it hasn't made much of an impression. By the time it's three-quarters over, the same statement holds true. This is certainly a bit peculiar.
This is the type of movie that was clearly designed not for a sense of realism, visceral impact, or emotional investment, but for the rudimentary enjoyment that follows from storytelling. It feels less like a motion picture and more like a drama broadcast live, scene by scene, on TV, or maybe even a radioplay given form on the big screen. There's nothing wrong with this approach - it's just a reflection of a simpler form of entertainment for a different time long past - but watching 'The girl in Rio' in 2022 requires open-mindedness in recognition of how the medium changed over the past several decades.
For what it's worth, I don't think this is completely bad... but nor is there anything really noteworthy about it, and little leaps out as especially praiseworthy. The cast demonstrates some nuance in their performances, though the acting is restrained by the slant of the production as a whole, and so no few moments come across as staged and unconvincing. Hillyer's contribution seems geared toward keeping cast and crew alike on track and wasting not one inch of film or cent of budget, whatever it meant for how the picture looked to an outside perspective. True, though modest, the production design and art direction, and every little rounding detail to greet our senses, is suitable enough. Yet more important than anything else for most features in my opinion is the writing, and even putting aside the forthright tenor of it all, I find the screenplay wanting. There's some mild levity, and mystery. There's also an active disregard for moving the story along, or maintaining cohesion, as scenes are tossed in that sometimes lack clear or meaningful connection to the small tale on hand. And with the scene writing and narrative being inconsistent and disjointed as they present, it's even more difficult to care about characters that don't seem to carry substantial personality, or dialogue that rarely rises above "perfunctory." There's a story here. What is it? Who cares?
More than anything else the title appears to have been an excuse to allow star Movita an opportunity to sing. In fairness, she does have a wonderful voice. But 'The girl from Rio' is so unbothered about anything else in its content or composition that one hour feels like an extraordinarily long time to sit around for a scant few tunes. If as much thought were put into penning and developing a sequence of events to hold viewers' attention as had been put into centering Movita, I'd be writing words now with a very different tone - a tad more attentiveness would have gone a long way. As it is, the climax seems to arrive so suddenly that despite all the dots having technically been connected from A to B and onward, it's hard not to respond with a distracted "what just happened?"
Frankly, unless one is a diehard fan of Movita, I'm just not sure there's much of any reason to watch this. There are countless features from the years before and after that are essential classics - thrilling, absorbing, satisfying. 'The girl from Rio' is all but entirely forgettable. Is it a bad way to pass the time? No, not per se. Yet why bother at all when you could be watching something else?
