Once Upon a Time Veronica (2012) User Reviews

Existentialism wrapped up in a poetic non Fairy Tale

[t-dooley-69-386916 · 7/10 · 6 April 2015]

This is billed as 'a fairytale in reverse' and I think it is easy to see why. Veronica is a newly qualified Psychiatrist in Recife, Brazil - she starts work as an intern at the City public hospital. She lives and dotes on her ageing and dying father. She has a great bunch of friends and a lover - Gustavo - who says he really loves her. So not a bad lot in life.

However, once she starts diagnosing her patients it opens a window on herself and she starts trying to diagnose what is wrong with her. She can not find romance but instead would rather have a one night stand with random pick ups of which Gustavo is aware. It is almost that the sex, self treatment and the songs she sings to her Dictaphone are all part of some healing process until she can find the cure to herself. The anti fairy tale part comes with the realisation that there is not a fairy godmother or an inevitable happy ending and probably the acceptance of such that make you be able to cope with whatever life throws at you.

Along the way there is a lot packed in and the relationship between father and daughter is really touching.This is told in a series of scenes that run in a linear narrative form and take us on the full scope of emotions and experiences for Veronica. It has a poetical feel in places and arty nudity in others. There is a fair amount of flesh on display here but it all seems rather natural, no one is trying to be super sexy or cool just as nature intended and that too adds to the overall mood of what is basically an art house film.

Please note I received a review copy for review purposes. The musical score is really rather nice too. This is from director Marcelo Gomes who has not had enough exposure outside of Brazil, but I think if he continues to make such self assured films like this then that position will change.

My Ennui and Welcome to It

[buddy-63 · 4/10 · 28 September 2014]

The other reviews here have easily fallen into the trap that Independent Films often provide. Start with moody cinematography, a lack of a rational plot, a heroic main character who finds life baffling, and a non-ending ending: There you have the formula for praise. Since I already know the deal, I often find myself at odds with the majority of reviewers. Take my advice--write down the scenario I just outlined, watch this movie, and see if I haven't nailed it. There is one character we will find appealing--a sweet old father who is tied to the hip of his daughter (and she his) and is slowly dying without knowing it. The love she freely gives to him is in direct contrast to her inability to connect in a romantic relationship. Her main use of men is for sex, which she adores, but prefers to have with random guys who she never wants to see again. She mistreats the one man that professes to love her (I think he just likes her body), even pretending to her father that he is really her boyfriend (the much wiser Dad couldn't care less, wanting his daughter to choose her own happiness. But Veronica is incapable of happiness. She wanders through the public psychiatric clinic like a catatonic, barely functional, and showing neither insight nor empathy for her poor, hapless patients. We are given no idea as to why she became a doctor or chose this specialty, for her disdain for it begins to show itself on her first day of work, and only grows worse with each passing day. Meanwhile, her two best friends can only babble on about the absence of men in their lives and merely urge Veronica to "snap out of it." Yeah. Anyone who has ever suffered from depression knows how helpful THAT phrase is (NOT)!!!! The movie ends with Papa hovering near death, Veronica feeling content with that because she bought him her childhood house as a present. She has somehow been promoted to work at a private hospital with a huge pay raise. We are given no clue as to whether this is going to help her escape from massive negative ennui. Ahhh, but the saving grace for many Brazilians appears to save the day: floating immersed in the Sea (capital letter essential), with thoughts of a nude orgy on the beach which may or may not be a memory or a fantasy, she tells herself something unmemorable, which gratefully releases us from her empty self. If you like that, you are welcome to it.

I wanted this movie to be 10 hours long

[pinkybanana2000 · 9/10 · 17 January 2014]

What a beauty! For once, I was so drawn to a movie that I never wanted it to end. If you are into fast-paced action with lots of vituperation, this is not for you. But if you like your movies to be profound, slow-paced, insightful, and thought-provoking, you will enjoy this movie. Also, it has none of the heartbreaks that you see in a movie like this.

Veronica is a newly-minted medical doctor, undergoing her residency. She shares her life with her aging father, on whom she dotes, the way he must have done for her when she was young. The beauty of the relationship between father and daughter alone is sufficient to love this movie.

She secures a psychiatry consultation in a public hospital, but she finds herself drawn to her patients, experiencing many of the same doubts, insecurities and existential malaise which plague her patients. Her love life also suffers to the same extent; she can't seem to find her footing.

Having drifted for a while, she finally catches a break which allows her to reset her life, her love and her family, and finally everything has meaning.

Portrait of a Heart of Stone

[lavatch · 1/10 · 4 August 2019]

In the beautiful setting of Recife, Brazil, "Once Upon a Time Veronica" plays out like a French art film of the 1950s. The pace is sluggish, the silences are protracted, the characters excessively hedonistic, and the film's themes overly pretentious.

The film juggles three strands in the rather pathetic life of Veronica. First, there is her relationship with her ailing father. Second, there is her unfolding career as a medical doctor. Third, there is Veronica's sensual lifestyle explored with her steady partner and others.

Of the three narrative elements, the most touching is Veronica's devotion to her father. The most believable moments occurred in the doting attention he pays her daughter and the reciprocal love she feels for him. A crucial reference point is the house where she grew up that is now shuttered and abandoned.

Much less successful are the scenes depicting Veronica at work as a physician. Rarely does she ever attempt to treat her patients. She has brief conversations and is a good listener. But, nowhere was it credible that she was a real doctor. At one point, she was under review for improper treatment of a schizophrenic. Next, we see her getting a promotion. The professional medical scenes in this film were a mess.

The romantic scenes were also problematic in the lack of intimacy or genuine connection Veronica was making with her paramour. She is unable to commit to marriage or even a permanent live-in relationship with her boyfriend. She seems to enjoy frolicking in groups more than in the one-to-one connection with another human being.

The interminably slow pace of the film is compounded by Victoria dictating her self-analysis into a recorder. At one point, she admits to herself that she may have a "heart of stone." In this slow-burner of a film in Recife, the subtitle of the film might read: "Portrait of a Heart of Stone."

Not and obvious film, made by the best

[guisreis · 8/10 · 13 March 2022]

Marcelo Gomes is an amazing director (Cinema, Aspirinas e Urubus, Joaquim...), Hermila Guedes is one of the best actresses from Brazil, and the same may ne told about João Miguel among Brazilian male actors. Then, this movie could not be less than good, and it did not disappoint. Is is far from obvious, does not follow clichés and conventional wisdom. It is also beautifully filmed, and besides the landscapes and the nice camera moves and frames, there are perhaps the most convincing sex scenes I ever seen (mostly between Hermila Guedes and João Miguel). It is about a woman, who takes care of patients as a physician but is also ill, as she suffers with depression. She is sad for ageing but also is beginning to climb her career steps, what she does not know if she wants to. There is a man who loves her and is good, and she likes him but follows mostly a chaotic self-destructive path of lust. There are friends and the warm water of the beach, but there is apathy, or a "stone heart" as she says. Her lovely father will not be there forever, and while he brings comfort, his situation also does not make hard things easier. A slow, careful, exploring and deep film about a woman, a healthcare profession and deseases. Choices may be made, anyway.

What a waste of time

[MovieIQTest · 8 February 2018]

From the very beginning, lot of the scenes in this film are utterly unnecessary. Some reviewers called it existentialism, but did you guys really know what's existentialism means? I don't know about it. But at least I know that loving making in group sex on the beach, talking about masturbation when you were lonely or hungry in a bar, could hardly wait to take off your underwear to let the man easily penetrate you from behind....got nothing to do with the existentialism. Feeling lonely in a crowd space, in a deadbeat city, dealing with so many walking-dead old patients everyday....but neither such depression nor such frustration would be qualified for existentialism.

I really don't know what's the purpose of making this film, and some reviewer wishing this film could go on and on and never end....Well, if existentialism mixed with women seeking men, men seeking women could be really that fun, then existentialism needs Viagra to sustain it to go on forever.