Rio Sex Comedy

An interminable, flat-out unwatchable piece of work, Rio Sex Comedy follows a series of characters through their respective misadventures within Rio de Janeiro. Director Jonathan Nossiter has infused Rio Sex Comedy with a freewheeling sense of style that initially seems rather promising, with the film’s opening credits sequence, which follows Charlotte Rampling’s Charlotte as she dances her way to work, setting a tone of lightheartedness that would appear to mirror the exotic nature of the story’s locale. It’s not long, however, before Nossiter’s decidedly aimless modus operandi becomes an obvious impediment to one’s enjoyment of the film, as the director’s obvious reliance on improvisation results in a frustratingly meandering atmosphere that only grows more and more problematic (and annoying) as time progresses. There are simply too many scenes within Rio Sex Comedy that ramble on and on without any real point, with Nossiter’s reluctance to offer up instances of exposition or character development ensuring that the viewer has absolutely nothing invested in the exploits of these hopelessly underwritten figures. The film’s ongoing problems are exacerbated by Nossiter’s frequent emphasis on elements of an aggressively heavy-handed nature, as the filmmaker ultimately resorts to speechifying in his efforts at making a series of eye-rollingly obvious points (ie poverty is bad!) The final result is a thoroughly (and consistently) irrelevant piece of work that often feels much, much longer than its absurdly inflated 125-minute running time, and it’s inevitably impossible not to wonder just what Nossiter originally hoped to accomplish here (ie whatever he was trying to do didn’t work in the slightest).

no stars out of ****