The Face You Deserve

Pedro Ponte

As self-indulgent, overly clever and stuck-in-its-own-little-world as you'd expect from Miguel Gomes' first film, but also too damn lovely and naive to not stick itself in our heartstrings like a child with ADD. You can see his entire career starting to take shape here.

tiagovitoria

I could say that Miguel Gomes is not fully understood by the critics and the public. His stories are allegories made by a person whose mind is boiling ideas and new conceptions about the world as we see it. Miguel Gomes can easily create another world or perception. How many directors are capable of doing that?

Pedro Eira

where can I find this movie? is so important !!!!

EdieMaas

The product of a wonderful, densely-filled mind, as yet unsure how to best express itself. Hints of the genius to come in Arabian Nights; still too much of the immaturity of Kalkitos... Gomes definitely benefits, here, from having Rivette as a bit of a cinematic frame of reference for his audience. Still, probably more a film for the already-converted than one for anyone else.

FISCHER

Oeuvre hébétée et saugrenue qui se voudrait fantasque et surréaliste dont on cherche vainement la pseudo-poésie, la folie créatrice, l'imagination légère et débridée. On se retrouve finalement à subir, surtout dans la seconde partie, une cacophonique lourdeur, sans aucun charme ni fragilité qu'on hésite encore à cataloguer dans la jobarderie post-estudiantine à connotation nombriliste. www.cinefiches.com

João Biscaia

A Ceuta do império cinematográfico que Miguel Gomes anda a construir. Um coming-of-age ao contrário, musicado por uma crise de identidade. Preserva o encanto de, por exemplo, um Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain, mas consegue ser mais realista, sem, ao mesmo tempo, entrar no realismo mágico.

Daniel Roque

Nota-se bem a maestria e singularidade que só podiam estar presentes num filme de Miguel Gomes, mas por comparação a trabalhos posteriores, fica um tanto atrás. As ilustrações do João Fazenda são deliciosas, e a canção inicial apesar de tenebrosa, fica na cabeça durante algum tempo.

Jason

Uhhhh. Jesus. Mad immersion in a cockeyed vision. A lot of promise. The thing is it hits this closed-circuit zone of whimsy pretty early and gets trapped, though admittedly up to business for which I don't have a lot of points of reference. It fakes you out in a way that ultimately fails to pay off. The audience is slightly cheated. Stupid and maybe brilliant. A big leap from this to the revelatory August.