drifting
by
Douglas Messerli
Paulo
Rebelo and João Pedro Rodrigues
(screenplay), João Pedro Rodrigues (director) Odete (Two Drifters) /
2005
The two drifters
of João Pedro Rodrigues’ 2005 film, are the handsome Pedro (João Carreira) and
the hunky Rui (Nuno Gil), both total romantics who, as the film begins, are
celebrating their first anniversary together, Rui giving rings that celebrate
what apparently is their favorite song, “Moon River.” The film begins with
their long goodnight kiss, as Pedro returns home to study for one of his
college exams, coincidentally hearing on his car radio the same song which is
sung, in this version, in a rough male rendition as he drives off.
Although that song may seem, at first,
as simply a gay romantic adaptation of the Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard
ditty, in fact, given that this heterosexual romance was originally penned by
the very gay Truman Capote, its implications are far deeper. For, soon after
driving away, Pedro is killed in a car crash, and the grieving Rui is
thereafter stalked by a young woman, madly obsessed with Pedro, transforming
what began as a gay-based drama into a study of what it means—or might mean—to
be bisexual.
The very same night another couple, Odete
(Ana Cristina de Oliveira) is breaking up with her lover Alberto (Carloto Cotta).
Odete, who works for a large supermarket as a roller-skating price-checker,
wants a more permanent relationship with Alberto and, even more desperately
wants a baby, obsessed with the idea as much as the actress Toni Collette is
addicted to weddings in Muriel’s Wedding.
Odete, a neighbor of Pedro’s, quickly
discerns that he has died, and, without invitation, shows up at the wake,
perceiving that the troubled lover, Rui is quite inconsolable about his loss and that Pedro’s mother is also deeply
suffering. She not only intrudes, but, when the others are sleeping, steals the
ring that Rui has given Pedro off of the dead man’s finger.
Later, Odete not only attends the
burial, but creates a spectacle as she jumps upon the casket, claiming a love
between her and Pedro that simply did not exist.
It is easy, and perhaps necessary, to
realize that this woman is quite insane, desperate to become a lover to
someone, anyone—particularly a handsome young man whom she, apparently, has
previously seen only from afar and now in photographs. Yet, Rodrigues takes
this madness for more seriously as Odete soon claims that she is pregnant from
Pedro, and gradually convinces Pedro’s distraught mother that she will be
bearing her son’s grandchild.
Mad love and deep grief get all mixed
up in this surreal story, as Odete also introduces herself to the suicidal lover,
Rui, who strangely, through her imaginary infatuation with Pedro, helps to save
his life as well as returning Pedro’s ring to him, and with that, restoring a
restorative symbol of his existence.
When it becomes clear that Odete’s
pregnancy is what doctor’s describe as an hysterical pregnancy or, what we might
restate as simply imaginary (in one scene, she herself discovers that she is
not truly pregnant), she seeks to become her would-be lover, clipping her hair
and, since she has now insinuated herself into Pedro’s home, dressing in
Pedro’s pants and shirt.
Ultimately, grief and loss meet head on
with madness and obsession when Rui and Odete come together, in the film’s very
last scene, with a truly startlingly scene where we, as voyeurs, are forced to watch Odete (now seemingly
reincarnated as Pedro) fucking Rui. In Rodrigues’ film it hardly matters
whether or not this might be a real experience. Love is never what it appears
to be. And the lovemaking on which the audience intrudes is quite inexplicable,
as always.
The very idea of “drifting” becomes
something else in this film, where the needs of lovers are redefined by their
obsessive needs. Love is often like that: people often seek out people who
provide them with their desires, even if not always offering them what is best
for their lives. Odete and Rui appear, to me, as a temporary solution to what
they both desperately need, and perhaps, if nothing else, will sustain each
other long enough to allow them to move on.
Los Angeles, July
13, 2017
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