Quem Ama Não Mata

Around 1981/1982 the main phrase that was spoken and spread everywhere was Quem Ama Não Mata ("Who Loves does not Kill") a feminism protest destined towards the countless murders of women by their own spouses or boyfriends, most specially the killing of journalist Eliane De Grammont by her ex-husband singer Lindomar Castilho who was going through a trial at the time. The sentence was ridiculous and it'd take a second trial years later to actually do some effect after such protests and of similar cases such as Doca Street and Angela Diniz affair in 1976 where the man claimed he killed out of jealousy and to defend his honor. The miniseries that came with such wave "Quem Ama Não Mata" carefully and patiently presents viewers the realities and dynamics of relationships among couples that can led to such a deadly sad scenario.

Right on the first episode, we have a chaotic scenario where we are told that one spouse killed the other, fights were a common scenario between them and neighbors knew it all along. Cut to months earlier and we are introduced to main couple Jorge and Alice (Cláudio Marzo and Marília Pera) and their daily life as a troubled couple where the dream of having a child, jealousy, basic daily routine progresses to drastic decisions and possibly to the final outcome of murder. Along with them we have Alice's relatives: their loving parents (Dionsio de Azevedo and Norma Geraldy); Alice's sister (Susana Vieira), an independent woman who doesn't believe in close relationships which seems to reflect on her older daughter Júlia (Denise Dummont) and her open relation with Chico (Daniel Dantas) that leads to an on/off break when she reveals her closesness with a friend of his; and there's also Jorge and Alice friends/neighbors Fonseca and Odete (Hugo Carvana and Tania Scher), who have their own share of happiness, sadness and affairs of which they deal with fairness.

When it comes to deal with relationships, differences between men and women, their frailties, insecurities, and what one wants from a relation, this is the series.

It's not an overstatement at all. Films can't capture fully those aspects it's all overlooked or unfit to follow a short form; and there's plenty of series that are more focused on a deeper aspect of a plot instead of following the routine of married men and women and how some parts of the double equation cannot cope with problems without losing it or acting with violence towards their companion. This isn't a justificative since the show presents a happy couple with their problems, and others that touch their problems without succumbing to drastic ways. But it's the tragic main couple that gets our attention when the man finds out that he cannot be a father while the woman's wish is to be a mother. They're getting to a certain age and for some reason, wisdom and respect isn't growing with such age and next thing we know they're all bad to with each other and violence can only escalate to what was a loving and decent couple.

Here's an important project, depressive at many times but never far from reality and that's why I liked this miniseries. Though many of its sequences are too long and melodramatic until we get to the whodunit part (which was what got me in the first place; the couple's dynamics were a bonus), this is a highly commendable series with outstanding performances from the cast.

Marzo and his macho bravado gets you in suspense at all times while Marília impecably shifts from a soft submisse wife that later knows how to humiliate her spouse when needed when she's suspicious of his acts; Scher and Carvana bring the humored side of the show with a troubled couple fighting their way through infidelity cases, a bunch of kids yet also helping out Jorge and Alice whenever possible.

"Quem Ama Não Mata" invites people to have dialogues, to fully discuss their relationship and to see that any obstacle can be solved in order to save a relationship, or if needed to end it without complications; to those outside of dating or marrying, it's a great clinical way to see if you could deal with everything that love has to bring to you. Tenderness, kisses, sex is all good but can one endure with bills to pay, commitments to others in order to see your partner satisfied, to follow a great deal of uncomfortable ordeals for the other, or worst case scenario to frankly deal with your own insecurities and difficulties and try not to fall into a wave of jeaoulsy paranoia. 8/10

P. S.: depending on the version you watch, the ending has an alternative ending, but both work in their own way. One was pretty related with this text beginning, and one was way far ahead of its time - though not far from happening.