City of God
My first thought was, “Oh great, I’m so glad my boyfriend picked a movie with subtitles. Because I love having to continuously move my eyes up and down the tv screen as I furiously read what is being said at the bottom and then just as frantically glance up to see what is happening for fear of missing a pivotal moment. Love that.” (Note the sarcasm) The movie actually captured my attention the first 30 minutes. I was anxious to see Rocket develop into his photographer role and expose the slums of Rio De Janeiro, as that’s how the movie was pitched on the back cover. Guess what – Rocket doesn’t even become a photographer until about the last 30 minutes, nor do his photographs expose the violence and gang activities until the very end of the movie. So what is this movie about then, you ask? Ummm…kids shooting guns, kids snorting drugs, adults shooting guns, adults snorting drugs, women being raped, people being robbed, and oh yeah – a gut-wrenching scene where a little child is intentionally killed point blank. As a mother this is not something I was able to stomach well. I preferred to give this movie a rating of 2.5, but decided to bump it to a 3 since it held my interest enough that I wanted to see the ending.
