From Beginning to End [Do Começo ao Fim] **** (2009, João Gabriel Vasconcellos, Rafael Cardoso, Júlia Lemmertz, Fábio Assunção, Jean Pierre Noher) – Classic Movie Review 12,944

Aluizio Abranches’s 2009 film From Beginning to End is a bold, brave and beautiful Brazilian romantic drama with a few heart-stopping emotional moments, as two brothers develop a very close relationship.

A love so strong from birth that nothing can come between them. Writer/ director Aluizio Abranches’s 2009 film From Beginning to End [Do Começo ao Fim] is a bold, brave and beautiful Brazilian romantic drama with a few heart-stopping emotional moments, as two brothers develop a very close relationship.

From Beginning to End is outstanding, and wonderfully moving, lit up by lovely performances. It might be a little bit controversial, provocative at least, and it would never have got made in the UK in the US.

Two brothers – Lucas Cotrim as Francisco as a boy and João Gabriel Vasconcellos as Francisco as an adult, and Gabriel Kaufmann as Thomás as a boy and Rafael Cardoso as Thomás as an adult – develop a very close relationship as they are growing up in an idyllic and happy family with their loving doctor mom Julieta (Júlia Lemmertz) and her second husband, Alexandre (Fábio Assunção), Francisco’s step father and Thomás’s father.

Their mom and Francisco’s real father Pedro (Jean Pierre Noher) both die, and, when the boys become young adults – João Gabriel Vasconcellos as Francisco and Rafael Cardoso as Thomás – their relationship becomes very intimate, romantic and sexual.

The title doesn’t lie. They are going to love each other From Beginning to End. It is a love so strong from birth that nothing can come between them. It really is for ever. This gives the adults some concern when they are boys. Are they too intimate?. But the adults are intelligent and caring, concerned but not worried, and leave them to get on with it. A world of love is proposed and accepted. How truly lovely!

The 2009 film From Beginning to End (Portuguese: Do Começo ao Fim).

It starts in 1986 when Thomás is born with his eyes closed, and he does not open them for three weeks when he stares into the eyes of Francisco at the hospital. It is love at first sight. Then in 1992 Julieta is working in a hospital emergency department and living very comfortably with her second husband Alexandre (Fábio Assunção), youngest son Thomás, from her marriage to Alexandre, and eldest son Francisco, from her marriage to her first husband Pedro (Jean Pierre Noher), who lives in Argentina.

Julieta dies 2008 when Francisco is 27 and Thomás 22, and the brothers become lovers and an idyllic love story ensues. But then swimmer Thomás is invited to live and train in Russia for three years in preparation for the Olympics.

It would be the first time they would be apart, but Francisco encourages a reluctant Thomás to leave. That leaves Thomás miserable in Moscow and Francisco, now following in mother’s footsteps as a doctor, struggling desperately back home in Rio without Thomás, dancing and clubbing, and ignoring Alexandre.

[Spoiler alert] All set for a happy ending to this From Beginning to End love story. Nothing will come between the boys, not Moscow, certainly not a woman Francisco meets in a club or its DJ.

It is shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with some filming in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The cinematography by Ueli Steiger is very striking indeed, and the score by André Abujambra brings on that loving feeling.

Country: Brazil.

Genre: Drama, Romance.

Runtime: 96 minutes.

Release: November 27, 2009 (Brazil).

Director/ writer/ co-producer: Aluizio Abranches.

Production companies: Pequena Central de Produções, Lama Filmes, and Estudios Quanta.

The cast are Rafael Cardoso as Thomás, Gabriel Kaufmann as Thomás at age six, João Gabriel Vasconcellos as Francisco, Lucas Cotrim as Francisco at age 11, Júlia Lemmertz as Julieta, Fábio Assunção as Alexandre, Jean Pierre Noher as Pedro, Louise Cardoso as Rosa, and Mausi Martínez.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,944

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