The Girl Who Killed Her Parents (2021)

This is a story that had huge potential as a drama. A manipulative young woman who loathes her wealthy (and quite possibly corrupt) parents convinces her frankly rather dumb boyfriend and his brother to do away with them. So what went wrong? Well, the acting - for a start. Though easy enough on the eye, nether Suzane (Carla Diaz) nor her gullible and sex/drug obsessed boyfriend Astroglido (Augusto Madeira) have much chemistry together, not are they remotely convincing as the story lurches forward like a walrus stuck in glue. Leonardo Bittencourt is marginally more effective as his equally selfish brother Christian, but it all just takes far, far too long to get going and then when it does - well, it is all over. The pace is certainly not helped by the courtroom scenarios that framework the retrospective style depiction of this true story that shocked Brazil in 2002, nor does the rather staccato dialogue really engage. Pity, but it's really mediocre.