Jaime

«Jaime» is a great Portuguese movie. This kind of movies is very rare to found, especially in Portugal, where the cinema industry is very small and just few films are good. «Jaime» is a story about a boy that works to have money for his dreams and to help his divorced parents. The script is very good, and most important, REALISTIC - another thing that is very rare to found in Portuguese films - and we have very good interpretations of the cast and especially from Saul (Jaime in the movie), a brilliant kid that unfortunately didn't continue acting after «Jaime». The soundtrack is nice and the direction too. So... why don't you watch this movie?

It´s a great portrait of a real problem that´s common in that region, Oporto, specially in that specific area, Ribeira, were the people are very poor. The script is great and the performances of Saúl (Jaime) and Fernanda Serrano (Marta, Jaime´s mother) are very nice. She did a very good job, not the one we get used to seeing on TV. The movie is very well edited and the music, particularly Rui Veloso song, fits like a glove. I gave 7 to António-Pedro Vasconcelos's "Jaime".

To the person who commented that the movie seems to be saying that "the problem with working children is not they aren't in school or that someone is taking advantage of them but the fact they are taking the places from the grown up people" -- this is inaccurate, or rather inadequate -- that's the view of one character in the film. Taken overall, I think the film's comments on work, social relations, and exploitation are much broader: The film seems to be about how the scramble for survival amongst those on the "lower rungs" of the socioeconomic "ladder" will bring out the hardness in people and their attitude towards those around them & life in general. I read the film as saying, if you're at or near the bottom, and aren't willing or able to stomp on a few people while attempting to climb up, you're not going to make it--literally. The consequences of this "failure" might even mean death. If this sounds Dickensian, that's because it is.

Living as I do in safe, comfortable Canada, insulated from this reality, I found myself very uncomfortable witnessing how the characters dealt with each other in the film. It's as if while we are moving into the 21st century (new economy and all that, including this Web site!), many people are returning to the 19th century, or at least the conditions of the 19th century in rapidly industrializing Europe.

I was also left wondering to what degree I am contributing to this process: in an era of globalization many people from Canada (including myself) have money invested abroad (of course none of us knows where exactly) via mutual funds and all that. Particularly in the film's work scenes, I found myself thinking, my money could be involved in that construction site or that bakery...

I found this film to be a painful experience, but in a good way. I would highly recommend this film for looking at these issues unflinchingly -- if you want something escapist and fun, this is absolutely not the film for you. But I would say to the filmmakers, thanks for the dose of reality!

"Jaime" is a soap opera, not the kind of soap opera where nobody works and everybody gets married in beautiful seaside resorts but the kind where tragedies keep on piling until the characters are out of breathing room in their lives for anything besides grievance.

"Jaime" follows the grown up child of the film's title in his quest to improve his life while at the same time reuniting his parents, for this he enters a dodgy underworld of child labor and slight misdemeanours where besides finding some pay he loses what little innocence he still retained.

Worthwhile even if a little heavy on the sentimental side