"Um tiro no escuro" (Shot in the dark) is a mix of drama and action movie. I tell you that because it has two parallel plots which mix together in the middle of the picture.
Veronica (Vanessa Mesquita) is a Brazilian woman from whom was stolen a baby, when she was in a bathroom of a Rio de Janeiro's airport, by a Portuguese air stewardess. Almost two years later we see her working in Lisbon in a strip-club. But we can see, by the plot, that she moved to Portugal in order to seek her missing child (everyday she passes to the airport and stay looking at the air-stewardess of the same company of the woman who stole her baby, seeing them arriving and departing, just to try to find again that woman!). At the same time we watch a guy leaving the jail. This guy, who was arrested by banc robbery, is a brother of the Night-Club porter, the "Engineer" (Filipe Duarte), which is friend of Vanessa and was arrested once by the same reason. When he and Vanessa were fired of the Night-club (after a fighting with the boss), the "Engineer" gave her support, leaving her to stay at his place. Here starts the "fusion" of the two "stories"
In my point of view I think there are two different genres of cinema in this film. The first, which we can see particularly in the beginning and in the end of the movie, is related to Drama. The kind of drama that tries to make you cry, but that is, almost all the time, too lame for that! And the "drama" of this movie was no exception, because I really think it wasn't needed. Worse, I even think it spoilt a bit a good action plot (the other genre of cinema I did refer), which was, in fact, the great part (in time and quality!) of this movie! As an action movie this film was very good, one of the best I've seen in Portuguese cinema for the last few years, but the "drama story" made me low my score (I would give it a 8/10, but because of that, I will just vote 7/10). This film makes an excellent portrait of the underground world of crime and night-life in Portugal, but it really was a pity that dramatic ending! It even seems to be taken from some cheap South American Soap Opera!
