Dona Flor and Her 2 Husbands (1998)

The hardworking “Flor” (Sonia Braga) marries the dashing Klaus Kinski lookalike “Vadinho” (José Wilker) but quickly discovers that he is a bit of a philanderer and a complete waste of space. Then, as if by magic, he dies and is conveniently buried with nose blockers so he can’t smell his own rotting corpse in the coffin in the ground! That’s an early sign of what’s to come in this dark and quite entertaining romantic comedy that has shades of “Blithe Spirit” to it. That’s because once he has started to push up the daisies, she marries the kindly and decent pharmacy owner “Teodoro” (Mauro Mendonça) who promises to be faithful to her and her alone. The snag with that particular arrangement is that quite rapidly she realises that though solid and reliable, his sexual prowess is less than energetic. Yep, after a while she starts to miss her absent “Vadhino”. Well, guess what. He must have been watching her from the netherworld as he almost immediately he appears, usually stark naked, ready to resume his husbandly duties. Quite literally an horny little devil on her shoulder! He turns up at all the wrong times, causes no end of mischief and in the end, poor old “Flor” doesn’t really know which way to turn as her husband thinks she’s gradually losing the plot and her scheming apparition is enjoying every minute of it! It’s maybe not a film for the more politically correct amongst us, as the wandering hands of “Vadhino” know few bounds, but once we appreciate that he is really just the latest in a long line of local Lotharios who is shallow and thoughtless, yes, but ultimately means no-one any harm then we can settle down to enjoy a series of faintly ridiculous scenarios set in a small town community where chauvinism is as much the currency as the Cruzeiro. There’s a suitably jolly score to accompany these antics and a clear message about the grass not always being greener - especially if you are slowly decomposing underneath it. It’s maybe a little long and it does recycle itself in the middle, but it is still, an enjoyable romp through a Brazilian way of life that lives by the seat of it’s pants.