Amor, extraño amor

This is a very rare movie, but quite a gem so if you can get your hands on a copy, don't let it go. If you were a young boy who had a confusing sexual education and early experiences, you will understand it well and be in touch with the story. The movie is boring much of the time, but occasional touching fantasy scenes keep you interested. And it is an absolute must for Xuxa fans, one of only a few of her English language performances. She plays a brothel prostitute hired for a party to entertain a wealthy diplomat. She also seduces a 13 (I assume) year old boy who is visiting his mother at the brothel. The other women there also take their shot at enticing him, mostly by flashing their nakedness. However, he shows no interest in them.

Being an old Brazilian movie, I didn't expect much. But even with all the prejudice, it still wasn't the worst I've ever seen. Xuxa draws attention to the unsuspecting viewer.

This Brazilian movie somewhat resembles the soapy, exploitative Brazilian "pornochachada" films of its era, but is a much more serious and arty (and pretentious) period film. The fairly serious plot is certainly not helped by the atrocious English dubbing of the existing VHS version, but the bigger problem is that the whole movie is even more laughably implausible than even the wildest, most out-there "pornochadas" I've seen.

The film is told in flashback as a fifty-something man remembers a brief period during WWII where he came to visit an upscale brothel managed by his mother. As political intrigue swirls both inside and outside the brothel, the twelve-year-old protagonist is seduced by no less than three of the prostitutes. The serious historical intrigue notwithstanding, it's very hard to buy (even in Brazil)that adult women working daily in the sex trade could not resist bedding a boy whose testicles probably haven't dropped yet. Obviously, the sex scenes between the nude adult women and the partially nude adolescent boy were (and still would be) considered controversial, but I think this movie is much less guilty of exploiting the adolescent male body than it is of exploiting the adolescent male fantasies that most adult males still vividly recall. (Besides if you're really looking at the twelve-year-old actor in the presence of all these voluptuous Brazilian women, I think it says a lot more about you than it does the movie).

As other reviews have mentioned, one of the prostitutes here is played Xuxa Menghel who went on to become a pretty big celebrity singer (and kiddie TV host!) in Brazil. She may indeed be the reason this rattling skeleton in her closet does not seemingly exist in any version with its native language. Still, she is undeniably sexy whether stripping out of a ridiculous bear costume or rubbing her naked self against the barely pubescent protagonist. She and some of the other women (including "pornochchada" regular Vanessa Alves)are really the only thing this overly serious, and at the same time, laughably ridiculous movie really has going for it.

Not expecting anything deep, I enjoyed this movie as something to relax with. While there was plenty of gratuitous nudity, there was enough of a plot and interesting characters to keep me interested. My favorite scene was Xuxa's striptease.

A long wait for almost nothing. I wonder if all those legal actions Xuxa took over the prohibition of this film's release after she became a popstar on TV with her programs was really because of legal issues concerning distribution or because she was embarassed by how bad this thing was, a film she made before her stardom. Most of us know it's all about the controversy revolving a scene where she performs sexual acts with a 12-year-old boy (Marcelo Ribeiro) Never aired on regular TV and cable, only available in rare VHS copies and internet torrents, Canal Brasil made an exclusive release of it in 2021 and I finally got my chance to watch it. Final analysis is that here's a bad movie, incoherent, excessive and that doesn't have a message to say.

It's just an excuse for being a softcore with many nudity and sexual moment that leads to nowhere, and director/writer Walter Hugo Khouri again makes a movie about pre-teen horny yet shy boys having their encounter with older women. He dealt better with those themes in "Paixão Perdida" and "As Feras" (of which bears a strong similarity of an old man remembering his younger days and experiences). I was embarassed, tired and aching watching this.

The controversies aside - which makes this film watchable and interesting for male audiences or females who have a thing for preying on young boys, "Amor Estranho Amor" ("Love Strange Love") was a painful experience when it comes to present its second backstory concerning dull political aspects on the powerful men who attends the mansion brothel where the little boy spends his time after being abandoned by his grandmother who leaves him there to live with his prostitute mother (Vera Fischer). She's the apple of the eyes of the rich character played by Tarcísio Meira, who is destined to buy her a house, so she can leave the mansion and live with her son in some peace and quiet instead of having lots of beautiful women lusting on her child. But it all fails and the slightly innocent boy becomes the center of attention to all of the prostitues, specially from the young Tamara (Xuxa), of whom he dreams about just like he dreams about his mother - as a critic pointed out it feels like "Murmur of the Heart". To me, a more perverted and almost explicit version of that movie.

As I said, the whole political thing is distracting, it slows the movie down and not to mention it's a script mistake since the film is told from the boy's point of view as an old man (Walter Forster), and those moments where he's not present shouldn't be part of the story unless the story was being written withuot the old man.

How on earth he could remember all that? The only thing that matters is the relations and fantasies he has with the women, or when he's spying on Tamara and Dr. Bráulio (Mauro Mendonça) on bed, an important political ally of Tarcísio's character. When dealing with memories it's important to us that we get an enlightment from the old character on why he's remembering this and the importance those moments had on his life later on. This film lacks for not providing that.

What's left in this pointless story are the scenes of sexual nature whether being the ones from the boy (too awkward to watch and for most of the time I kept thinking how if the genders were traded how would that be with the same treatment of the one depicted here. Far from being an "Lolita" and more fire on the bonfire of controversies) and the ones from the brothel clients, or the mother with her regular costumer. Some scenes are brilliantly filmed and staged; others are just exploitative and gratuitous.

It was a bizarre film experience that only served one purpose and it was not about having fantasies or memories of younger days; it served to put me to sleep in the final five minutes of it and to not providing enough distraction or some food for thought with such an unpleasant and dull story. Not recommended, unless if you are curious in seeing this rarity starring Xuxa hitting on the young boy (the confrontation scene where she's slapped by the mom is priceless though. LOL). 4/10.