L’homme de Rio
Director: Philippe de Broca
Writer: Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Ariane Mnouchkine, Daniel Boulanger, Philippe de Broca
Cast: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Françoise Dorléac, Jean Servais, Roger Dumas, Daniel Ceccaldi, Milton Ribeiro

Plot:
Adrien (Jean-Paul Belmondo) got a week’s leave from the army and wants do visit his girlfriend Agnes (Françoise Dorléac). But Agnes’ father was the owner of a pair of Maltec statues, one of which was just stolen from a museum and the other is still missing. Before Adrien really gets a chance to reunite with Agnes, she is kidnapped and brought to Brazil. But Adrien is hot on her tails – trying to find her and still return to the army on time.

I didn’t know much about the film going in and I expected it to be more of an adventure film (along the lines of Romancing the Stone or something). But in fact it was a comedy, with a lot of slapstick and a few adventure elements. Either way, it was entertaining.

Not everything about the movie was perfect. Agnes was rather awesome – when she got to be not drugged and conscious. Unfrotunately that was most of the time (or at least it felt like it). And I think if it had been longer, I would have grown very annoyed with Adrien as a character.

But generally speaking, it was a really enjoyable, entertaining film that had me laughing out loud on several occasions. It just really had the comedic timing down and moved at a fantastic pace.

Both leads were charming and convincing in their roles. It was a joy to watch them. Though as I said, Adrien’s carefree luckiness probably would have really started to annoy me.

The plot wasn’t the best and realism really is something else, but that’s not what you look for in these movies anyway, right?

Summarizing: If you like your adventure movies with a whole lot of slapstick, that’s the way to go.