Strange Fruits

Caught a couple of Spanish films this weekend and was particularly intrigued by a Portugese Film entitled "Odete." It's a film about the strange relationship between a fruit and a fruit lover, or in regular parlance, a fag and a fag hag.

The movie starts with a pair of lovers, Pedro and Rui. They just celebrated their first year together, and had silver rings as an anniversary gift. On his way home, Pedro meets an accident and dies, much to the dismay of Rui because he feels responsible for Pedro's death. Rui called Pedro on his mobile phone while driving, and that's how he met the accident.

*insert commercial against using the phone while driving here*

Odete is a rollergirl in a supermarket, has a boyfriend and is yearning for a baby. When she floats the idea of having one, her boyfriend goes ballistic and Odete throws him out. She realizes her mistake a day after, and begs her boyfriend to come back. Alas, he's sick of her neuroses, and decides to leave her once and for all.

Rui and Odete's lives cross because of Pedro. Rui is his lover and Odete is his neighbor (and apparently, they don't know each other.) Because of the break-up with her boyfriend, Odete snaps and suddenly claims she's pregnant with Pedro's child. Pedro's mom, who slaps her in disbelief, know her son is incapable of doing that. But Odete hangs around Pedro's tomb, and the mom, upon seeing this, feels guilt and drives her to "adopt" Odete.

This is where things get really creepy...

Odete digs up information about Rui and Pedro's love affair. She's so smitten by the story that she later tries to make herself a surrogate Pedro to Rui - wearing his clothes, copying his hairstyle, calling Rui from Pedro's home number, and even stealing their "anniversary ring." At this point, you could feel a "Boys don't cry" vibe as the once beautiful Odete transforms into an androgynous "Pedro."

The ending of the film is too disturbing for words. It should really be seen to be appreciated.

After watching the film, I became instantly interested in the actress who played Odete. Her name is Ana Christina de Oliveira. She's this lithe stunner who looks like Kylie Minogue, but with much more height. She can easily pass off as a supermodel with her chiseled features and impressive body structure.

Apparently, she appeared as one in the Queen Latifah/Jimmy Fallon comedy "Taxi." She was one of tall, leggy robbers in cahoots with Gisele Bundchen in the film. She never struck me in that film because all eyes were on the Queen and Jimmy. But in "Odete," she really lived up to her role as the lead actress.

Throughout the film, I was hating her. (Even though I just love, love, love the way she looks.) She was irritatingly neurotic that you wanted to go inside the screen and slap her silly! And by the time she transformed to the faux Pedro, she shed all her bombshell-ness and really became a boy in the eyes of the viewers. How's that for a chameleon-like performance.

Immediately after watching the film, I searched the net for her other films, or her future ones. I want to catch more of Ana in action. Apparently, she'll be appearing in the big screen version of Miami Vice. I hope she'll avoid the Jessica Simpson/Carmen Electra curse and just be a token girl in the film. Given her excellent acting chops, she definitely deserves much more.