The Middle of the World

The Middle of the World is a small, gentle film involving a poor Brazilian family biking their way across the country… but the problem is, it’s not terribly interesting. Though it’s layered with good intentions, from the noble characterizations to the appropriately down-and-dirty directorial style, the film never becomes anything more than a mildly entertaining peek at a completely alien lifestyle (for most of us, anyway). The movie centers around Romao (Wagner Moura) and Rose (Claudia Abreu), a happy couple with five kids that are forced to take their only possessions – their bicycles – and head to Rio de Janeiro (where Romao is convinced they’ll find jobs). Along the way, they meet up with a variety of figures – including a homeless man that turns out to have connections – while squabbling with each other (the family’s eldest son, in particular, doesn’t approve of this nomadic existence). The Middle of the World is so innocuous and easy-going it’s hard to really say anything bad about it – but at the same time, it’s exactly that reason why the film never become terribly compelling. Though the characters do begin to grow on us in the final half hour, that still leaves an opening two-thirds that are underwhelming (to say the least). The real problem is that these people are never developed to the point where we really care about them or their plight; the film essentially just presents them to us and hopes that we’ll automatically sympathize. Having said that, director Vincente Amorim does an admittedly superb job of taking us into a world that most of us will never see (here’s hoping, anyway). The extreme poverty of Brazil is obviously a real concern, and as an educational tool, the film succeeds. But beyond that, the characters never become intriguing enough to warrant an 85-minute movie.