A film review: "Ponte Aérea" [2015, Brazil]

Julia Rezende's romantic drama "Ponte Aérea" [Eng. Title: Air Bridge] is about a modern-day long-distance relationship that develops between a young couple living in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo respectively.









Amanda (Letícia Colin) and Bruno (Caio Blat) meet by chance when their flight to São Paulo gets diverted to a different airport due to bad weather. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, they were otherwise quite unlikely to have crossed paths; while she's an ambitious executive in a major ad agency steadily climbing up the corporate ladder in São Paulo, he's the laid-back creative-type still figuring out what to do with life in down town Rio.

A one-night stand in the hotel they're accommodated in will lead to further 'chance' encounters between the two in both São Paulo and Rio, and as Amanda gets to know Bruno better, a tentative romance blossoms. Bruno, visiting São Paulo to reconnect with his estranged but now bedridden father will learn that he also has a half brother young enough to be his son, and before he could come to terms with it, the little boy will become his responsibility.

All this is big change for Bruno, and when Amanda declares her interest in helping him build a career, it becomes too much for him to take, as he feels burdened by others' expectations. He disappears for a while, and refuses to answer Amanda's calls and frantic messages.

After holding a successful show of his own artworks, Bruno meets Amanda again at an airport lounge, just as they had met for the very first time - by chance, and just as they rued missed opportunities in nurturing what they had going, they also leave a door open for reconciliation and a possible reunion. I'm sorry if I've thrown away an explicit spoiler while describing the storyline, but I could see this coming from miles away and wasn't at all surprised when it ended the way it did. It is a typical mainstream film with a mainstream ending. But I have no doubt that some would love the film to bits - after all, it has some rather likeable faces, featured in interesting locales, and boasts some pretty decent production values.

DVD Purchase Link [NTSC]

 

The Nudity: Letícia Colin and Caio Blat
There is brief nudity from the couple during and after some sex scenes.



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