This story about a teen girl coming of age and discovering her sexuality alongside some unpleasant truths about life constantly had me thinking about the fake movie Rochelle, Rochelle from that one episode of Seinfeld. It wasn’t quite “a young girl’s strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk,” but it didn’t really have to be because it was scenic enough staying put on a beautiful Brazilian beach. Still, I couldn’t shake the fact that this was the sort of faux artsy film project that feigns depth but really exists only to titillate with constant images of blossoming young girls frolicking around while wearing tiny Brazilian swimwear. The results were pretty creepy, but only because of how effectively director Heito Dhalia is able to use his camera and his beautiful but far too young actresses to do just that.
À Deriva isn’t a total loss and a recommendation for perverts only though. While I was disappointed that the lovely and actually of age Camilla Belle was advertised as being in this but only shows up in glimpses as a sort of distant figure, I did get all of the Vincent Cassel goodness that I could have hoped for. I’ve yet to be disappointed by a Cassel performance, and this movie is no exception. Every second he is on screen, this time playing a struggling writer in a struggling marriage, he commands the totality of your attention. The film’s young protagonist Laura Neiva is impressive as well. She gets most of the heavy lifting to do and handles the load like an expert, despite her inexperience. The photography is just fantastic, and it’s always helped along by the gorgeous scenery. The film feels a bit long because the script is kind of meandering, but the performances are good enough and everything is pretty enough to look at that you don’t really mind. Watching À Deriva kind of feels like being on vacation and spending a couple of hours laying in a hammock, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
