"Viagem ao Fim do Mundo" ("Trip to the End of the World") is one of those films with great ideas that sadly get obliterated and neglected as minutes go by.
There's plenty of great and interesting insights about life and people in the late 1960's, many questionings and challenges of the period that still resonate
today but the problem is that writer/director Fernando Coni Campos didn't know how to make a good connection to all the wordy thoughts from the characters and
the little of their actions, and it's truly hard to define if the fantasy or dreams from them make any sense and how much it affects their reality.
A group of passengers on board of a plane have a series of streams of conciousness that can be either dreams, nightmares or deep thoughts about their past
and future. Here's a few of them: a young man (Fábio Porchat, the comedian's father and the resemblance is uncanny) has a vivid nightmare of a naked woman (Annik Malvil) on a
beach who presents historical facts from the early 20th Century and how they could possibly be the beginning of a potential 3rd World War; an old businessman
(Jofre Soares) panicks about the plane going down; a nun (Talula Campos) questions about God and her devotion to Him and the church, making a series of
philosophical questions. At times, there's some small interactions on the plane, mostly related with the men's desire for the beautiful advertising girl
(Karin Rodrigues) or some talks about a soccer player problematic deals.
The problems are everywhere. As people embarking on the same voyage they don't interact much with each other, and when they do it's all empty conversations
with no depth. And when the plane finally gets where it needs, some of the characters simply disappear from view and we didn't even know why that trip was so important. As they
immerse themselves in their own little worlds, the chaos and confusion is rampant with a downer mixture of literature and magazine references that only keeps on
complete doubt about the meaning of life, the obsession for consumerism and the hopelessness of it all. No solutions were given neither some theory as to how
those men and women will go on with their lives.
I think Campos tried too much, succeed it very little with all this existential quest. When Bergman or Tarkovsky does that, they reach something and they give
us some breathing space rather than just throwing and spewing words after words that one can't find ways to pause, make a reflection and move on. I won't complain
about the editing, the images (there are amazing archive images and the collage between them are superb) neither the use of many Caetano Veloso songs, that add
some humor and some idealism coming from the counterculture of the period. But, sadly, I felt lost and confused for most of the time, and didn't get a higher
persepctive to the hopes and fears of those characters. I might be wrong, maybe one day I might return to it and find something special there. For the time being,
it stays as a disappointing effort that had a nice material but just wasn't well connected. 3/10.
