In the movie City of Men, we are taken through the lives of two youths in Brazil. The first thing that I noticed was how different life there is from the life that we know in the US. When someone gets shot, people just look at each other and simply say "one less". Both men are right at their 18th birthday. They have been best friends since early childhood. One, Acerola (Ace for short) (Douglas Silva), is struggling to be the best parent he can be to his young son. But given that he's not much more than a kid himself, it's not always the easiest thing to do. A toddler can be quite difficult. He has a tendency to forget about his son sometimes and accidently leave him places, or just drops him off at his father in law's or with his sister in law for them to watch.
Ace's best friend Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha) is 2 weeks from his 18th birthday when the movie starts. He is still trying to find his father, whom he has never met. His mother refuses to even tell him his father's name. All his life he has been trying to find this man, but now it is even more important to him. Laranjinha wants to be able to put his real father's name on his ID that he must get when he turns 18. He feels he needs a father to be a real man.
Both of these two best friends are struggling with the definition of family and how they can best keep their families together. When Laranjinha does find his real father thanks to Ace's help, they think things are going better. But secrets from the past will tear them apart. When they end up on different sides of a nasty gang war, will they be able to mend their friendship and simply help each other survive?
There were some really great things about City of Men. It is very powerful and very well told. The acting was wonderful and very believable. I liked the way they integrate the flashbacks into the main movie. It's very well done, very smooth. The one drawback for me is that the film is in Portuguese. It took me a while to get used to reading all the lines, and I felt like I was missing some of the action while I was reading. Other than that though, I really did like it. If you can handle to language difference, this is a really good drama to buy!
