By Kim Choe
As far as accessories to murder go, blenders aren’t high on the list of those most frequently used. So when the one in the film becomes involved in a killing, things get interesting. And that’s before the blender has begun to talk, think, and feel.
This film has already been popular with festival audiences, and it’s not hard to see why. The premise is utterly bizarre: kitchen appliance helps dispose of body while at the same time musing (aloud) about the meaning of life as an inanimate-but-sentient object in a human world. Yet despite this, the black comedy has a disarming sort of charm to it.
The protagonist Elvira (Ana Lucia Torre) is in equal parts paranoid, vulnerable, and just plain crazy. Her world exists within the four walls of her tired little house. As she shuffles around it, her black eyes flash from sadness to rage – but never happiness. It’s impossible to know whether to like her, feel sorry for her, or wish she’d met the same unseemly fate as her wayward husband Onofre.
A small cast of colourful characters pops in and out of Elvira’s life - neighbours, “other” women, and an incredibly psychotic detective, whose job it is to find out what happened to Onofre.
The film does drag at times though; slowed by the blender’s incessant narration which, at its most annoying, makes you wish Elvira would smash it against a wall. It’s also written in such a way that most of the essential plot points are revealed in the first few minutes, rendering large parts of the remainder incidental.
A curious, whimsical watch. You may never look at smoothies the same way again.
Three stars.
3 News
Reflexões de um Luquificador (Reflections
of a Blender)
:: Director: André Klotzel
:: Starring: Ana Lucia Torre, Selton Mello, Germano
Haiut
:: Running Time: 80 mins
:: Rating: R13 – content may
disturb
:: Release Date: 20 October 2011
