User Reviews

This is not the best Portuguese movie ever made. And definitely not even a good movie. So what is all the fuss about? First, this was made for Portuguese audiences. It is a Portuguese story, the actors are known faces from television, the music can be heard in the radio. And with the help of a television network, a lot of publicity was made about it. Unfortunately, not for a good cause.

The story runs around the new priest in town, and how he falls into the temptations around him, becoming one of those he thought he would never be. But the adaptation of the 19th century novel does an effort to be "modern" and "cool", adding rap, street gangs, hungry news reporters and mafia-like businesses to the screenplay. And too much naked bodies.

And then unnecessary secondary stories take too much time from the primary action, so prepare for a really fast ending. Maybe that's good, you can go home earlier than you thought!!

As you might not know Eça de Queiroz is one of Portugal's most rightfully celebrated writers. He was witty, he spared no one in his critics and must now be rolling in his tomb. And that's not due to this movie being bad, which it is, but as a result of the treatment dispensed to one of his masterworks "O Crime do Padre Amaro". It's treated like cheap, throwaway trash.

When it was publicized that this was to be a "modern and urban" take on the book I feared for the worst, normally modern in these contexts means taking the liberty to take the p**** when doing an adaptation, to half arse it in the shoddiest possible way. And so the moral and social dilemma of a priest having a secret,forbidden affair are substituted by extra-long passages of people dealing drugs and singing hip-hop for no particular or pertinent reason to the plot. It's just there like it might very well not have been.

Oh and there's lots of sex so you can at least be counting on that when you put this on. Remember how every movie in the 80's, no matter the genre or the tone always found a way to sneak in some nudity? If it was a thriller and they had no need for it they simply found a way that when they were capturing a felon he "happened" to be in bed with a woman that would prance around screaming (naked of course) when the cops barged in. Ahem, gratuitous is the word I think. Not that there's anything wrong with nude scenes but here they make the creators of this movie look desperate simply because there's nothing else to the movie, it's totally devoid of what do you call it dramatic content.

I saw this film yesterday on TV. I had just finished reading the book in which the movie was supposedly based. In the opening credits it said "This is a free adaptation of Eça de Queirós' novel". I should have turned off my TV at that moment.

Vera Sacramento's idea of "free adaptation" is turning a story about Church's influence over people and the hypocrisy of people claiming morality at the end of the 19th century into a story about sex. In fact, the only thing she adopted from the novel was the sex part, which was only mildly referred in Eça de Queirós' novel. And, of course, the name of some characters.

As of the characters, in the novel, Amélia and João Eduardo were victims of church's influence. Amélia was seduced by Father Amaro and all the time she was controlled by him. João Eduardo, her fiancé, was excommungated by the priests, because he dared to criticize them. In this movie, Amélia seduces every one she meets and Father Amaro is just another victim. João Eduardo is a dealer of drugs and illegal weapons.

Vera Sacramento has turned a novel which criticized moral costumes of an epoch and turned it into just another movie with lots of (bad) sex. Even worse, her story was completely empty of ideas. Two wasted hours! Eça de Queirós surely did not deserve this.

The film is nothing else than an exposition of nudity. Has anyone noticed that all three main female characters appear naked? It looks like the only winning bet for Portuguese filmmakers is to include some (if not a lot) of nudity of the local stars, together with slang which otherwise, in the nowadays Portuguese society, is repulsed with horror. If you watch advertising for Portuguese films at Portuguese TVs, they all have included a "hot" scene from the movie. I'm not saying, by any means, that Portuguese society is alienated; just that the movie industry does not seem capable of finding others ways of success. Going back to the movie... There is nothing left from the spirit of the book, which is a masterpiece. The film could have been a good one, had there been emphasized the real idea of the book (of actuality at any time) and not the strictly erotic part. It had almost all the ingredients... but the "chef" was awful...

This film is a clear example of what makes contemporary Portuguese cinema absolutely disgusting. Moved by sentiments that are certainly anticlerical and atheistic, Carlos Coelho da Silva decided to bring to the cinema one of the most controversial and famous novels by Eça de Queirós, who was not sympathetic to the Catholic Church, but who gifted us with a writing of truly unparalleled beauty. Let me clarify this: the problem with this film is not to be against priests, but to completely distort Queirós work. It's a film without context, just a pretext for sizzling erotic scenes, worthy of a pornographic film, that turn a priest into a kind of "confessional sexual athlete". Why? Because sex sells. Just that.

The action of the film completely contradicts the book, so we can say that any similarity is almost coincidental. With the exception of the title and most of the characters, the film does not take advantage of the excellent material of Queirós, preferring to invent a new story in our time, where sex scenes fit better. The most reputable actors are there, but always in supporting roles (Nicolau Breyner, Ana Bustorff, Nuno Melo, José Wallenstein, Diogo Morgado, etc.), leaving the main characters for two weaker colleagues. Jorge Corrula has an angelic aspect in the cloth and Soraia Chaves may not have any talent but she looks great naked, and this was widely used in the film.

Needless to say, in an ignorant country like my dear Portugal, such a film was a huge blockbuster. Sex sells... sex involving priests sells even more. Did people read the book to compare, and did they also like good Queiros literature? I doubt that much. A pair of breasts are more appealing than a six-hundred-page book. A national shame.

The script is extremely poor, the acting is lamentable, the soundtrack is annoying. This film is an incredibly poor adaptation of Eca's book, which unsuccessfully tries to transpose it to the 21st century. It simply doesn't work - not because it is not possible to adapt Eca's classic to a modern environment, but simply because nothing in the film works: the twists are predictable, it heavily relies on conventionally-beautiful naked body and simulated sex and on clichés (such as the gay characters, the gangsters). The plots and characters are disjointed. It tries to portray a multicultural modern Portugal, but the attempt is also flawed, leaving the viewer lost.

I saw O Crime do Padre Amaro yesterday, and i all i can say is that the movie is very bad. Much of the characters of the movie are only there to fill up the story. There's no density and the characters change personalities without any explanation. It's true the movie is the biggest office box ever made in Portugal but, as someone already said, this is all because of the good publicity. The Portuguese movie industry has good movies, but this is not one of them. It is important that the Portuguese audience goes to see their own movies and maybe that is the only virtue of "O Crime do Padre Amaro". I've read that there will be a TV series made from this movie. I expect that the deleted scenes will explain better some parts of the story. The soundtrack is nice and representative of the music that is made in Portugal.

Very cool! Finally a good Portuguese movie with "salt" and "rythm" in it! Very young adult film. Oh, and the priest is so "ugly".....or not!!!! Just remember this is a contemporaneous adaptation of a 19th century Portuguese romance. it's not just a script made for a "cool gangs-sex" movie... We may compare it to "Tentação" (1997) with Joaquim De Almeida, but it has an all new taste (visual and musical) to the movie, definitely a 21th century film. There's also a little bit of comedy involved, not "cheesy" but ironic. I would also say a strong language is involved in this movie, so strong that identifies with current issues of our society. My opinion... see it for yourself!!! It's worth it!!!

How is it possible to be proud of this film? How is it possible create this movie and still be respected as a writer, director or actor? How is even possible to finance it, broadcast it, or, worst of all, watch it?

José Maria de Eça de Queiroz would have hanged himself after watching what they done to his WONDERFUL story. Or maybe Nan Flanagan and Margaret Jull Costa improved it in translation.

It's just one of those movies you watch to get a glimpse of what people around the world are capable of writing and enjoying.

I didn't laugh once watching O Crime do Padre Amaro, I would pay to see someone watching stuff like this on a regular basis. Bad actors, bad plot, bad sketches... The only good thing was the end!

My vote: awful.

The movie could be good but it was filmed in an awful place. I didn't like one bit of the scenery.

I feel very sorry for the people that have to live there everyday.

The movie could be good but the place where it was filmed it's awful, I feel very sorry for the people that have to live there everyday of their life.

I've seen it and my expectations about this movie we're confirmed. If not the best, "O Crime do Padre Amaro" was one of my favorite movies ever. This movie is an adaptation of the Eça de Queiros book to our days despite the changes that had to be made. Great performances from all the well know actors, lots of beauties, and an entertaining polemical issue (organized crime, street gangs, fake religion and priests sexual needs) that affects our society are the ingredients to this successful movie.

Carlos Coelho da Silva could do much better than he did. As other users said the time was not well distributed, not only because there were details to explain, but also because the naked scenes took to much. The movie had much more potential...

I was not expecting such a tragic ending, but the fact is that with this end the message carried causes a bigger impact and is easily learned.

This is a great movie.. Doesn't matter if you've read the book or not I'm sure you'll love it as I did. The story is about a young priest who fells into temptation with a fabulous woman but there are many other good stories in the movie. The critic to todays decadent Catholic Church is evident and is very well explored. The movie explores also the violence and crime in todays Lisbon surroundings of Chelas. If you've never been to Lisbon this movie will give you a good picture of the dirty side of the 'big' city. The gang action scenes and anti-crime brigade police intervention are pretty good.. it's just like in big Holiwood movies but this happens all the time at around Chelas. This movie has lots of talented actors - the best Portugal has to offer - and besides them there is the Portuguese discovery to cinema: Soraia Chaves. She is simply amazing.. no priest could resist her. Maybe in the future we can see her in a big Hollywood movie.. I'm sure! The soundtrack is very good, it's mostly Portuguese hip-hop featuring some of the best Portuguese bands of the moment like 'Da Weasel','Sam The Kid' and also 'Clã' among others. This is currently the second most seen film in Portugal and soon may be first. To sum up there's nothing to dislike in this movie: a Perfect 10/10 Go watch it!

The first time the i heard talk about this film i thought that it was another bad film... After that i heard a lot of good comments about the film! After i saw the film i was surprised! The history about a priest that can't resist the charm of a woman is very well written and the role of the actors is amazing! In my opinion is one of the best Portuguese films ever made and i think that this film is turning point in Portuguese films! From now on i expect that all Portuguese films become a success as this movie! Go to the cinema or buy it in DVD is the only away of see Portugal growing in film business and saw more successes like this!