Review: Nome Proprio (2007)

[Steve Rhodes]

CAMILA JAM
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  **

Some movies effectively shoot themselves in the cinematic foot by choosing a 
narrative structure that is almost impossible to pull off properly.  So it 
is with CAMILA JAM (NOME PROPRIO), which is filled with interior monologues 
and long periods of solitude.  Almost completely silent for long sections, 
the film is one that tries viewers' patience and then provides them little 
payback if they stay with it.

When we meet the film's title character, Camila, she is completely naked. 
Sitting in a chair whimpering, she watches in horror as Felipe (Juliano 
Cazarre), her boyfriend, packs up all of her stuff.  Although it's her 
apartment, or so she claims, he is kicking her out.  Angry and 
uncontrollably furious, he literally throws her stuff into boxes.  Much 
later in the story we learn that he has a history of sleeping around, but, 
when he caught her in the act with a stranger, he completely lost it.  But, 
the story is told from her perspective, so we're not sure what the truth is.

Leandra Leal, a black-haired beauty last seen in the United States in the 
marvelous THE MAN WHO COPIED (O HOMEM QUE COPIAVA), plays Camila.  While she 
is fetching, her skills are not enough to overcome the difficulties of the 
uninviting narrative.

Semi-crazy Camila spends much of the movie typing on the internet.  In email 
messages and in blogs, she rants profusely about how awful her ex-boyfriend 
is.

Some of the camera angles, such as the one in which we watch her toes curl 
up when she types mean phrases, do provide some interest.  More often, 
however, the camera work is one long distraction.  A love making sequence, 
for example, appears as random shots of out-of-focus flesh.  Only the large 
tattoo on her back provides us some clue as to whose flesh we might be 
seeing or, more precisely, attempting to see.

Easily the most uninteresting scenes are the long, silent ones of Camila 
cleaning the new apartment where she goes to live.  Scrubbing with a 
vengeance with no spoken dialog comes across as just short of completely 
pointless.

Only Leal's nude scenes, the ones in focus that is, stir at least some 
interest in the audience.  A lot of people walked out of my screening, and I 
must admit that I can't blame them.

CAMILA JAM runs a very long 2:00.  The film is in Portuguese with English 
subtitles.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25 - March 8, 2009.


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