To Die Like a Man -- Film Review
By Stephen Farber, October 13, 2009 05:09 ET
"To Die Like a Man"
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/to-die-like-a-man-film-review-1004021787.storyBottom Line: Lisbon drag-queen drama has moments that drag and others that soar.
This year's New York Film Festival was criticized for highlighting a slate of esoteric, grimly pessimistic movies, and Portugal's "To Die Like a Man" certainly would fit into that category of arty downers. But like many of the other movies presented at the festival, this drag-queen tragicomedy has considerable merits along with some maddening elements. Joao Pedro Rodrigues' third film should be popular on the festival circuit but has little boxoffice potential.
The movie begins with a war scene that combines homosexuality, surrealism and violence -- elements that recur throughout the film. At first this opening sequence seems to have no connection to the main story, which concerns the travails of Tonia (Fernando Santos), a drag queen in a Lisbon nightclub. But one of the pleasures of the movie is how all the apparently disparate elements eventually intersect and meld into a satisfying whole.
