Vale Abraão

I know this is considered to be Oliveira's masterpiece but it's not even one of his best movies. The plot is dull and drags on forever to the point where the ending is a relief and the acting is just terrible or non-existent. The movie starts, disturbingly, with the story of a young woman who seduces the men to the point where they go crazy. I say disturbingly for two reasons: one is that the woman protagonist is shown as a devilish creature that uses defenceless men and sucks the life out of them, a misogynistic trope that should have been abandoned long ago. The other is that the woman is as young as 14 when the story starts. To be clear, the movie sexualizes a 14 year old girl. If you find that repulsive, as you should, steer away from this movie, because it doesn't get better. The young girl, played atrociously, "seduces" an older man, a doctor, who, years later, ends up marrying her. She then becomes an expressionless, cold woman for the rest of her life (or, at least, that's what the movie shows, even if unintentionally) and cheats on her husband with every single man that crosses her path. This is all framed with images of the Douro Valley in a way that doesn't do justice to that amazing region. It's all dull, predictable, and boring until the end. Having seen most of Oliveira's movies, I have to say that, in my view, not only is this not his masterpiece, it's even one of his worst movies. Avoid, unless you are looking for a sleeping pill.