Reviews::Main

Director: Terry Gilliam Year: 1985 Language: English Country: United Kingdom

Like a darkly comic version of Orwell's 1984, Brazil follows the life of Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) who works in the Governments Ministry of Information. When his work brings him into contact with a woman resembling a woman who has appeared in his dreams, he seeks to meet up with the woman, accepting a promotion to the department of Information Retreival to find out more information on her. It's not long before his quest to get the girl soon begins to get him in trouble with the authorities.

The film has a retro-futuristic feel to it and has a wry sense of humour mixed in with some completely off the wall ideas. The plot and characters are strong and there are some good performances from a wide ranging cast which sees minors parts for Robert DeNiro, Bob Hoskins and Michael Palin amongst others. The comedy aspects are amusing although they peter out as the film goes on and becomes slightly darker. The surreal moments are also entertaining, one highlight is DeNiro's turn as a kind of black ops heating engineer who breaks into Lowry's apartment to fix his air-con.

Overall, a highly entertaining and original movie which has aged well.

Dave W - 17th July, 2010 - 13:06