A Felicidade das Coisas

A summer house, with a swimming pool. Forty-year-old Paula probably had rose-tinted expectations of the holidays she would spend there. But in A felicidade das coisas, she actually spends her summer, heavily pregnant, in a cramped house that is a complete mess. Without her husband but with her mother, her standoffish pre-teen son and daughter. The house is close to a hazardous river, a not particularly charming beach and an expensive club. The vaunted swimming pool has been dumped on its side in the garden. There’s no money to have it installed – none whatsoever. Nevertheless, Paula becomes determined to install the pool, as if this will suddenly make everyone happy and her frustrations disappear. Weariness gradually creeps across actress Patricia Saravy’s face. In this well-acted personal drama, debut director Thais Fujinaga also tells a bigger story: about motherhood and a sense of responsibility, and about Brazil, where, according to her, who you are is determined by what you have. (International Film Festival Rotterdam)