I first watched "Rei do Rio" ("The King of Rio") some 15 years ago, late night TV program, and liked it for whatever reasons that it
didn't felt like a time wasted but remembered very little of it. As I watched "Águia na Cabeça" ("Eagle on the Top") very recently I was
remembered of that film which also stars Nuno Leal Maia getting involved with illegal gambling on Rio and decided to take another look. It didn't
improve for the best neither got bad, it's an okay escapism and easier to follow than the 1984 movie (but I wonder if director/writer Flávio
Thiago had heard of Dias Gomes original play of which this film was based, or there were news at the time saying a film version was on the
works and he rushed his movie first to cash in. The stories are quite similar and they have the same lead actor).
A classic dramatic story where two friends are torn apart because of business matters, you've seen that before. Nuno plays Tucão, a
small figure in the Jogo do Bicho (illegal gambling) who works for the powerful Cacareco (Milton Gonçalves) who runs all the best betting
corners in town. After a premonitory dream and some visions, Tucão, along with best mate Nico Sabonete (Nelson Xavier) bet on the lucky numbers and get a
great deal of money which allows Tucão to finally get married and get the courage to defy Cacareco in order to become The King of Rio and control all
the spots. But as predicted by Cacareco, in a Shakesperean tradition of oracles and their premonitions he is told that this partnership will be broken
in time, and it happens. Nico feels like a helper rather than a man capable of having his own business spots, and that's when all the luck in
the world starts to fade away and a battle between both will begin, jeopardizing the future of their owns sons and daughters with Tucão's
daughter (Andréa Beltrão) and Nico's son (Arthur Muhlenberg) trying to find ways to live their love for each other.
Both this film and "Águia na Cabeça" present a relevantly real view on the world of illegal gambling in the 1980's, and Rio de Janeiro as
a major background scenery since at the time the biggest king of its period and before Castor de Andrade ran things like a true king, with the cops
and authorities supplying for him - and Nuno's character has a lot in common with him since both had a personal honor code of never dealing with
drug trafficiking, and that's why Nico starts to change the business for himself with the aide of a crooked chief of police (Tônico Pereira, always
great in those roles). But it's also the kind of story you see presented in coutless crime/mafia movies but told in more spectacular and better
ways. It's sure entertaining but doesn't reveal anything new or so original to be seen.
Director Fábio Barreto had a fine cast working for him, and I must say that I quite enjoyed the usually wooden and repetitive Nuno Leal
Maia, he's more of a hero in this movie than in "Águia..." where his character becomes a cold-blooded murderer. In this movie he had the chance to shine a little above anything he ever done since audiences are allowed to see him age (the story takes place between 1964 and 1984), and you can attest that his character matures a little, has a conviction and he's quite right with it. Nelson Xavier is always excellent
and he gives some humored moments; but Milton Gonçalves was quite over-the-top as the original boss. Only when he appears in visions that he becomes something else.
It's a real classic story and it doesn't go wrong with neither its presentation or its morale as analysing those characters. Easy come, easy go.
There's luck, there's fate and there's success but with those you can always count on the bad, the betrayals, and the designs of human mind and human
heart always asking for more, and even the things one cannot control: other people and their will. And to indeed be a king, it's so lonely up there. 6/10.
