You’d think a schemer like Edgar would be
more into RPGs than video games. Maybe he just got hooked on Grand Theft Auto during his two year
cooling off period in Miami. He has returned to Sao Paulo with a plan to clean
up the city’s worst element and redeem his past mistakes in Afonso Poyart’s 2 Rabbits (trailer
here), which releases today on VOD.
Edgar is a slacker, but his knows his
micro-electronics. They will factor in his plan to bring down Sao Paulo’s worst
drug lord, Maicon. For years, he has beaten every rap thanks to information
supplied by the Assistant District Attorney, who happens to be married to his sliny
defense attorney. However, someone has provided the DA a batch of mega-incriminating
evidence.
This time, Maicon will need the personal
intervention of crooked politician Jader Kerteis, but it will not come cheap,
as Edgar knows. After all, it was Kerteis who pulled the strings to allow the
slacker to wriggle out of jail time after he accidentally ran down a young mother
and her daughter. Legally, he got off scot-free, but his conscience is a
different matter, especially when he sees Walter, the still grieving husband
and father, who now works for his restauranteur father.
2 Rabbits is one of those
films that constantly rewinds, giving viewers flashbacks that suddenly illuminate
whatever baffling bit of business it just began. These interludes are slyly
executed with plenty of energy and black humor, but we keep waiting for the
ones that will explain why Edgar has it in for Maicon and why a particular
figure from his past has agreed to help him, but they never come. That leaves a
couple Amazon-sized motivational holes right it the center of the film.
If we do not get hung up on why anything
happens, it is rather enjoyable to watch the pinballs bounce around. 2 Rabbits is all about style over
substance—and Poyart’s approach is most decidedly kinetic. He also has a flair
for dropping plot twists, even if, strictly speaking, they do not make a whole
lot of sense.
