O Outro Pai

"Feel Good" movies don't have to be unbelievable, predictable, and simplistic. But this one is. It's boring. I rarely say that watching even a bad movie was a waste of my time, because even bad movies often have some redeeming feature of interest. This one doesn't; watching it was a waste of time. To make it worthwhile it should have been an hour longer.

Four thirty-ish sisters return to their parents' home in Spain for their mother's funeral. They learn that "Dad" is not their biological father, and are made to jump through hoops to learn which men are, so their Mother's will can be read. Well, no: they're made to casually stroll through one very broad hoop set at ground level with a smooth transition - no trouble at all.

Netflix Media Center's plot description says "discovering more about themselves, their mother, and their lives." Very little discovery takes place. We get only trivial insight into the four sisters' characters as the story starts. We gradually learn only token tidbits about each woman's relationship with Mom. And we learn absolutely nothing about the role played in their lives by the man they had been calling Dad, nor of his relationship with Mom. Who the biological fathers are is telegraphed early and loudly, as are the "insights" the daughters learn about themselves. All that remains is to map Dad A to Daughter 3, and so on, and the film progresses to the inevitable and obvious happy ending.

The trivial plot is carried forth by one-dimensional, stereotyped characters. A couple of the actresses apparently realize they're producing junk and seem not to even try to make it real. Netflix's technical production is excellent, of course. There are a couple of heart-warming moments. But wow, this is fluff. This storyline, to be meaningful, needs more texture and density and much more complexity at both a high and a low level.