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O Dez
Portugal 2010
produced by Leonel Vieira for Stopline Films, sapo.net, RTP
directed by Paolo Marinou-Blanco (segments Prólogo, O Barbeiro, Mudar de Vida, Amnésia, Cara ou Coroa, Esqueleto no Armário, Manobra de Heimlich, Epílogo), Leandro Ferrao (segment Gnósis), Joao Nunes (segment O Presente), Pedro Varela (segment Anestesia)
starring O Barbeiro: Carla Chambel, António Cordeiro, Luís Lucas, Joao Maria Pinto; Mudar de Vida: José Eduardo, Diana Costa e Silva, Eduardo Frazao; Amnésia: Rita Brutt, Cristovao Campos, Mafalda Pinto; Gnósis: Joao Arrais, Ivo Canelas; Cara ou Coroa: Carloto Cotta, Leonor Seixas, Cândida Vieira, Esqueleto no Armário: Anabela Teixeira, Richardo Aibéo, Maria d'Aires, Rita Loureiro, Filipe Vargas; Manobra de Heimlich: Dinarte Branco, Rita Durao, Teresa Faria, Paolo Marinou-Blanco; O Presente: Pedro Lacerda, Carlos Santos, Joao Pedro Vaz; Anestesia: Sao José Correia, Flávia Gusmao, Albano Jerónimo; Epílogo: António Cordeiro, Diana Costa e Silva, Cristovao Campos, Ivo Canelas, Anabela Teixeira, Dinarte Branco
written by Joao Nunes (segments Prólogo, Mudar de Vida, O Presente, Anestesia), Paolo Marinou-Blanco (segments O Barbeiro, Epilogo), Pedro Vintém (segment Amnésia), Leandro Ferrao (segment Gnósis), Joana Monteiro (segment Cara ou Coroa), Filipe Homem Fonseca & Nuno Markl (segment Esqueleto no Armário), Joao Quadros (segment Manobra de Heimloich), supervising writers: Paolo Marinou-Blanco, Joao Nunes
review by Mike Haberfelner
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In the Middle Ages, a hanged man loses ten valuable coins, coins that
are cursed though and bring misfortune to whoever finds them - the coins
were picked up by beggars, and now they are scattered all over the
country:
- O Barbeiro: A young film historian finds a supposedly lost silent film in a film archive, but upon watching the
film, she sees a real life murder - and is in turn murdered by the
archivist.
- Mudar de Vida: A beggar owns nothing but an ancient coin, and
then that is stolen from him by another beggar, who tries to impress a
pretty young charity worker with it - and gets stabbed to death. Turns
out the charity worker gave the coin to the first beggar in the first
place - as bait.
- Amnésia: Two girls and a guy break into a house to steal a
valuable coin - but then one of the girls knocks the guy out because
she wants the coin all for herself. When the guy comes to, he can't
remember which of the girls knocked him out but finds the two of
them in a fight and tries to figure out what has happened. Point is,
he has a gun, so the two girls are vying for his attention, and only
one of them is lying. Eventually, in a scuffle, the guy shoots one of
the girls - the wrong one it turns out when the other blows his head
off.
- Gnósis: A writer only manages to overcome his writer's block
when he commits a murder - even if that lands him straight in jail ...
- Cara ou Coroa: A student lets his entire life be ruled by
toss-of-a-coin decisions - which means in the end that nothing in his
life has much meaning or cannot be altered - so much so that a
toss-of-the-coin makes him lose his girlfriend.
- Esqueleto no Armário: Madalena (Anabela Teixeira) is fired
from her job, mainly because she's a zombie, and a colleague of hers
doesn't like zombies and thus she schemed against her. Then though this
colleague is mugged and killed - and returns to work the very next day
a zombie. Soon enough though, she is fired for being a zombie as well
...
- Manobra de Heimlich: A doctor finds a pattern in deaths by
choking that could have been saved by the simple Heimlich manoeuvre,
and does everything in his power to save the next victim.
- O Presente: Edgar (Pedro Lacerda) leads a monotonous life, so
much so that he shouldn't worry too much when he loses his job at the
gas station. That night, he receives a gift, a coin, with a card
reading "Be careful what you wish for!" The next day, his
boss is dead, murdered, and he's the prime suspect.
- Anestesia: A man has swallowed a coin, and since then he has
a disturbed perception of the human body as such, so much so that he
starts killing and mutilating prostitutes and carving his own
body. Finally he meets a woman who seems to be up to his
shenanigans - but then she ties him up and cuts him open.
- Epílogo: After filming the last scenes for O Dez, the
director insists to keep one of the prop coins used in the movie -
which prompts characters from the stories in the film come to life,
kill him, and retrieve the coin.
Nothing great but a fun made-for-TV anthology movie with stories ranging from
the predictable to the imaginative to the clumsily written to the boring.
The directorial efforts are at least moody throughout and the cast is pretty
decent as well. That all said, the film might be mostly fun while watching
but nothing really memorable.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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