The Secret Agent: A Review

THE SECRET AGENT

It pains me to go against the grain on occasion. Sometimes, there are small elements that push something just low enough to be mildly negative. Such is the case with The Secret Agent. The film has many strong elements. Unfortunately, one or two aspects of The Secret Agent make it hard for me to fully recommend. 

1977 Brazil is, according to the on-screen text, "a time of great mischief". It is a time where people can stumble onto decaying corpses at gas stations. One such unfortunate soul is someone calling himself "Marcelo Alves" (Wagner Moura). He is on his way to the town of Recife. Here, he will stay at the inn run by Doña Sebastiana (Tania Maria). Everyone is celebrating Carnaval, but everyone there is also keeping their true identity secret.

Marcelo is really Armando Solimoes. He wants to see his son Fernando (Enzo Nunes), who has been watched over by his maternal grandparents. Armando, a widower, is essentially hiding out from Henrique Ghirotti (Luciano Chirolli). Ghirotti has a major grudge against Armando after the latter spoke out against him over business dealings. Henrique is also angry that Armando dared stand up to him when he insulted Armando's wife. 

Marcelo/Armando has a new job at the city clerk's office thanks to the underground helping him. Here, Armando attempts to find his mother's identity card in hopes of finding more about her. He also connects with Fernando. His wary father-in-law Sr. Alexandre (Carlos Francisco) works as a projectionist. He will not allow Fernando to watch Jaws. He does, however, allow his office to be used for Armando's secret interview. The interviewee Elza (Maria Fernanda Calzido) tells Armando that Henrique has put out a contract on Armando. He wants to flee Brazil with Fernando, but it will take time to get the fake passports for both. 

Meanwhile, local chief Euclides (Robério Diogenes) has his hands full. A shark has been found with a human leg inside of it. A wealthy lady ignored her maid's child despite her promise to watch over him when she sent the maid grocery shopping. The child wandered off and was hit by a car. The lady's wealth protects her from the poor maid's wrath. Chief Euclides delights in bothering Hans (Uri Kier), a German tailor. Euclides thinks that Hans is a Nazi hiding out in Brazil when he is really a Holocaust survivor. He also is very friendly with the men sent to kill Armando. Neither group knows Armando and Marcelo are the same person.

Things come to a head when the hitmen steal the leg and dump it into the river. Wild stories of the Hairy Leg coming to life and attacking gay men at the park where pickups take place run rampant. More assassins come after Armando. Will he manage to come out of this alive? Will the adult Fernando (Wagner in a dual role) remember his father or help two students who listen to his late father's recorded interviews?

The Secret Agent runs nearly three hours long. Sometimes that is not a hindrance in a film. It is not even a hindrance in a foreign language film such as with Seven Samurai. Here, however, it is. The film begins with Part 1: The Boy's Nightmare. For the life of me, I do not remember if there were more parts. Granted, I was nodding off a few times. However, I do not know if I genuinely want to rewatch The Secret Agent to find out. At least for a while.

I have often said that while I can get what a film is going for, it does not mean that I accept it. Such is the case with The Secret Agent. Once we had the sequence of this dismembered leg beating up gay men, I thought the film went off a bit. I wonder if people watching such a scene would find it funny or dumb. I lean towards the latter.

I also wondered if the Hans section was necessary. I again figure that it was to show Chief Euclides' personality as a bit of a bully and idiot. He, for example, is oblivious to a menorah that is in Hans' private office. It is very late in The Secret Agent when we even learn that two girls in present-day Brazil are listening to Armando's tapes. It is almost at the end when we learn the reason: they are transcribing Elza's archives. 

I did struggle staying awake for The Secret Agent. There have been occasions when a film did tire me out, but I was curious enough to return. This was not the case here. I think it was the hopping Hairy Leg. 

I think there is maybe too much story in writer/director Kleber Mendonca Filho's screenplay. It felt overstuffed with so much extra (Hans, the apparently homophobic Hairy Leg, the wealthy woman hiding out in the makeshift police office) that the central story of Armando/Marcelo came close to getting lost. I also found the late bouncing from 1977 to circa 2020s a bit jumbled. It is not terrible. I just found it a bit jumbled. 

It is a shame, as The Secret Agent had some good elements. At the top of the list is Wagner Moura as Armando. He was generally quiet and still, showing the emotion in small ways. There are moments when Armando shows rage, such as his confrontation with Henrique. For the most part though, Moura plays Armando as a man besieged and not knowing why it is happening. He knows that people are after him because of a personal vendetta. However, Armando is not a violent or angry man. He defended his wife. He still mourns for his wife. He dearly loves Fernando and will do whatever he can to protect him. 

Moura gives a solid, moving performance. He shows cleverness in avoiding the hitman who ends up killing Euclides'' officers. He shows a mix of weariness and frustration during the interview. Wagner Moura does an excellent job in The Secret Agent. He is the standout in the film. This is especially true at the end, where he plays his own son. It is such a good performance that one is convinced that the adult Fernando is another person even if it is clear that it is the same actor. 

However, I found that The Secret Agent was stuffed with excess amount of story to fully recommend. I know that The Secret Agent has been highly praised. I am not saying that it is terrible. I just found it longer than it should have been. That is something that I am not keeping a secret even if people might want to throw hairy legs at me.  

DECISION: C-