The word deliberate is often used by critics and film buffs to describe films that are long and slow to get to the point. It’s often used as a backhanded compliment, but it really does a disservice to the material since the word has had its definition twisted almost as bad as the word irony has been trotted out to describe things that aren’t ironic in any way. I fear a lot of people will call the last film from Chilean master Raoul Ruiz deliberate because of its running time of just a shade over four and a half hours (much like last year’s Carlos, this was originally a television miniseries), but for a film this long it moves at a pace far faster than the one the clock would suggest. Mysteries of Lisbon is the rare filmed epic that manages a grand twist that changes the entire story for the better every five to ten minutes. It will most assuredly keep attentive viewers engaged and on their toes.
The film starts off in 19th Century Portugal to tell a lengthy story about people with interconnected lives that have had their personal relationships obscured by long buried secrets. First and foremost, the story centres on a young man in private school named Pedro de Silva (played by three different actors at different stages of his life) as he attempts to uncover the identity of his unknown father and the reasons for his mother’s estrangement. A big part of the puzzle rests with Father Dinis (Adriano Luz, giving the film’s most heartfelt performance) who by the end of this young man’s “diary of suffering” will reveal numerous aliases and secrets that will set the more episodic aspects of the story in motion.
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