If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good movie but grossly overrated

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

I had this movie with me for a long time but I just wasn't really attracted by its name or poster whatever. I watched it today and was I glad I did. Those who hate this film , they misunderstand it as being a disappointment in the screenplay but I guess they don't understand that it's a William Hurt centric film as Luis Molina as a homosexual guy having a persona of a woman(his crying and giggle as a delicate woman is terrific) imprisoned and forms an unlikely friendship with his cell-mate. I love Taxi Driver for its character study and this film is not far behind. A well made character study. Must watch for those who crave for performances.

It was a rare window of opportunity for me at the time, to catch a few glimpses of the brutal reality - what would happen to an outsider - whether a homosexual or a political prisoner - in another country like Brazil.The Spiderwoman trapped in a web at the opening has haunted me even decades after watching the film. What was she doing there? Why did she stay on the web perhaps of her own making? Why did she not break free? Was she stuck forever? Was she actually safer in her own prison than the world outside?The film certainly showed us a side of South America to us in Hong Kong at the time, a time when most people were fretting over the 1997 handover, whether to break away to another country, which country.Every country, every place has a story of its own to tell.

While many like Hector Babenco's brilliant, raw 'Pixote' better, I find his deeply emotional portrait of two lost souls surviving together in a South American prison cell even more riveting. The two towering performances – William Hurt's feminine gay storyteller, and Raul Julia's angry but frail (emotionally and physically) leftist are by far the best work either has done on film.The intricacies of their slowly evolving relationship are complex, powerfully moving, and sometimes disturbing, And while probably 60% of the film takes place in one room, the film never feels like a play. It's always cinematic. A special film that holds up to repeated viewings.

Complex, exceptionally well-performed character study from director Hector Babenco focusing on the relationship between a gay movie-lover and a political prisoner serving time as inmates in a South American jail. Allegorical talk-fest won William Hurt an Oscar as the flamboyant Luis Molina, though Raul Julia is just as fine in his role as the dedicated rabble-rouser whose party is plotting to bring down the Fascist government. The art direction and cinematography are fabulous, however this tale--infused with character-oriented drama--palls just before the final act; it becomes too literal, confusing our feelings towards Molina. Screenwriter Leonard Schrader, adapting the book by Manuel Puig, adds intricate layers of romantic/exotic fantasy atop the harsh realities of the central situation, which is exciting for any literate audience, yet his determination to bring the story down to earth via a violent sweep leads to some dissatisfaction. Still quite good; later the basis for a Broadway musical. **1/2 from ****