December 19, 2025
FILM: THE SECRET AGENT
DIRECTED BY: KLEBER MENDONCA FILHO
STARRING: WAGNER MOURA, MARIA FERNANDA CANDIDO, GABRIEL LEONE
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s 1977 and a period of “great mischief.” A man named Marcelo arrives at a gas station in his yellow VW Beetle. There’s someone lying dead on the ground under some cardboard. The gas station owner says the body has been there “since Sunday.” He’s waiting for the police, who happen to show up while Marcelo is there. However, they’re not looking for the body. They’re looking for Marcelo. That’s the set up for the new Brazilian film from Kleber Mendonca Filho. It’s a long (158 min.), sprawled out story that features a multitude of characters, including a “hairy leg,” and more than one shooting. The problem is that Filho takes SO long in setting up the story and introducing these characters that he doesn’t get to the meat and compelling parts of the story until at least an hour into the film.
The central focus though is on Marcelo who we find out recently lost his wife. His son Fernando lives with her parents. Marcelo and Fernando want to be together but there is some business to be taken care of first. During this opening act of the film there are two men out to kill Marcelo who moves into the refugee home of an older woman named Dona Sebastiana. There is some complicated plotting which makes it hard to discern exactly who is who and how they are all connected, if they are. It feels like an extended set-up but it’s not quite clear what the stakes are. Sure, we know there are two men after Marcelo but the reasoning gets a bit muddled with the variety of characters and establishing scenes.
There’s also a tangential plot about a leg that is found inside a dead shark. Who does the leg belong to? Later there is a switcheroo or two where that leg is stolen. It becomes a media sensation. Because this is also the era of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, all of the kids get involved with the mystery of the “hairy leg.” There’s even a sequence which is meant to look like a horror movie where the leg begins attacking people. Why Filho chose this tonal shift is a bit of a mystery to me, but it was fun to see.
Sprinkled into the mix are two women in the future viewing images and listening to cassette tapes surrounding the events of the film we are watching. The significance of these scenes only gets revealed late in the film’s running time.
Wagner Moura (Narcos, Civil War, Dope Thief) plays Marcelo and he’s received a lot of acclaim for the role already, including a win for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival this year. His performance is generally pretty subdued. He doesn’t go for big swings but he does play Marcelo at two points in time and even turns up in another role later in the film. I don’t know that his performance is awards-worthy but he is a solid actor.
Filho does do a great job of capturing the look and styles of 1977. From hair to costumes and street scenes, at no point are we ever taken out of the era. The score too feels like it belongs in a mid-20th Century espionage thriller.
I wouldn’t say the film is a big nail biter, at least until the last act. It’s an interesting, if complex, drama featuring the underworld, a family, and some questionable identities. We don’t learn much about many of the supporting characters but there’s definitely an air of danger surrounding Marcelo throughout the film.
The Secret Agent is Brazil’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar this year and is being heavily touted for major awards before then. It opens in theaters today, including the Music Box Theater in Chicago.
FILM: THE SECRET AGENT
DIRECTED BY: KLEBER MENDONCA FILHO
STARRING: WAGNER MOURA, MARIA FERNANDA CANDIDO, GABRIEL LEONE
RATING: 3 out of 4 stars
By Dan Pal
It’s 1977 and a period of “great mischief.” A man named Marcelo arrives at a gas station in his yellow VW Beetle. There’s someone lying dead on the ground under some cardboard. The gas station owner says the body has been there “since Sunday.” He’s waiting for the police, who happen to show up while Marcelo is there. However, they’re not looking for the body. They’re looking for Marcelo. That’s the set up for the new Brazilian film from Kleber Mendonca Filho. It’s a long (158 min.), sprawled out story that features a multitude of characters, including a “hairy leg,” and more than one shooting. The problem is that Filho takes SO long in setting up the story and introducing these characters that he doesn’t get to the meat and compelling parts of the story until at least an hour into the film.
The central focus though is on Marcelo who we find out recently lost his wife. His son Fernando lives with her parents. Marcelo and Fernando want to be together but there is some business to be taken care of first. During this opening act of the film there are two men out to kill Marcelo who moves into the refugee home of an older woman named Dona Sebastiana. There is some complicated plotting which makes it hard to discern exactly who is who and how they are all connected, if they are. It feels like an extended set-up but it’s not quite clear what the stakes are. Sure, we know there are two men after Marcelo but the reasoning gets a bit muddled with the variety of characters and establishing scenes.
There’s also a tangential plot about a leg that is found inside a dead shark. Who does the leg belong to? Later there is a switcheroo or two where that leg is stolen. It becomes a media sensation. Because this is also the era of Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, all of the kids get involved with the mystery of the “hairy leg.” There’s even a sequence which is meant to look like a horror movie where the leg begins attacking people. Why Filho chose this tonal shift is a bit of a mystery to me, but it was fun to see.
Sprinkled into the mix are two women in the future viewing images and listening to cassette tapes surrounding the events of the film we are watching. The significance of these scenes only gets revealed late in the film’s running time.
Wagner Moura (Narcos, Civil War, Dope Thief) plays Marcelo and he’s received a lot of acclaim for the role already, including a win for Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival this year. His performance is generally pretty subdued. He doesn’t go for big swings but he does play Marcelo at two points in time and even turns up in another role later in the film. I don’t know that his performance is awards-worthy but he is a solid actor.
Filho does do a great job of capturing the look and styles of 1977. From hair to costumes and street scenes, at no point are we ever taken out of the era. The score too feels like it belongs in a mid-20th Century espionage thriller.
I wouldn’t say the film is a big nail biter, at least until the last act. It’s an interesting, if complex, drama featuring the underworld, a family, and some questionable identities. We don’t learn much about many of the supporting characters but there’s definitely an air of danger surrounding Marcelo throughout the film.
The Secret Agent is Brazil’s submission for the Best International Film Oscar this year and is being heavily touted for major awards before then. It opens in theaters today, including the Music Box Theater in Chicago.