When I first caught Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent at TIFF, my body unfortunately decided it was the perfect time for an unplanned nap. To be fair, I was running on fumes and the film felt like it was easily over three hours long. So before passing any judgment, I knew I had to give the film a second go. After revisiting it at the Vancouver International Film Festival, I can safely say this: The Secret Agent hits way harder and so much better the second time around.
In 1977 Brazil, Armando (Wagner Moura) under the name of Marcelo, a technology expert in his early forties, is on the run. Hoping to reunite with his son, he travels to Recife during Carnival in order to shake off his pursuers. However, he soon realizes that the city is not the safe haven he was expecting and his plot to escape Brazil’s repressive military regime is going to be more difficult than he imagined.
From the title, The Secret Agent, you would expect this film to be a high-stakes, neo-noir political thriller that is sleek, dangerous and a bit exploitative. A film about a “secret agent” on the run during the Brazilian military dictatorship. But the film is anything but that. The narrative is more grounded and human. This isn’t a “high-stakes” political thriller following a “secret agent”, but something smaller and more intimate. We follow Armando, played brilliantly by Wagner Moura, an ordinary man who got caught in the crossfire of a corrupted and brutal military regime. The pacing isn’t a heart-bounding thriller that constantly attacks you. Rather the film takes its time, methodically building its tension, scene to scene, that allows the tension to slowly simmer to boiling point. And though the narrative unfolds on a small, intimate scale, Filho gives it the weight of an historical epic that reaches an audience beyond Brazilians.
Through Armando’s eyes, we see the cruelty of the government first hand in its rawest and most unflinching form. The government’s power is weaponized, they terrorize their citizens, and people disappear without a trace. Bodies litter the streets, limbs are tossed into rotting sharks, and the air itself feels heavy with paranoia and dread. Armando and the “refugees” that surround him, live in a constant state of fear and survival, as death may be knocking at their door. One moment he’s keeping his head down, trying to stay invisible after learning there is a hit out on him; the next someone quietly calls him by his real name with a gun tucked beneath their shirt. It’s gripping, tense and quietly horrifying. And while the film easily could have lost 20-minutes, once The Secret Agent finds its rhythm, it’s near impossible to look away.
So, is The Secret Agent a perfect film? Not quite. But is it a hell of a good time? Absolutely. Filho fuses the tension and paranoia of a neo-noir thriller with his trademark vibrance and wit, crafting something that’s as stylish as it is entertaining. Sure, it drags a bit in the first hour, but once it hits its stride, it’s easy to see why this is the film Brazil will be championing come Oscar season.
My Rating: B
Leave a Reply