Overall Score
Rating Summary
Every once in a while comes a film with a story that may be well-intentioned but that arguably doesn’t offer all that much therefore got the embellishing treatment in order to fill out some sort of arbitrary quota. Sergio is another example of one of these films. Since there’s not all that much to this one, the film is stretched and molded into a hard to follow mess that’s not only too long but also incredibly dull despite the star power in front of the camera. With this film, director Greg Barker takes a second crack at telling a story about the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sergio Vieira de Mello, after his 2009 HBO documentary entitled Sergio. However, the biggest problem with the film was that it never seemed to know what story it wanted to tell. As a result, the film was not nearly as impactful and will surely lead some to tune it out well before reaching the end of it’s sub 2 hour running time (it could’ve been shorter).
The story of Sergio of course basically follows Sergio Vieira de Mello (Moura) but jumps around in time way too much. The main event that anchors the story is the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq that saw de Mello appointed as the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq. What was meant to be a short assignment inevitably became more as he would often find himself at odds with American representatives. For those who are aware of de Mello’s story, the result shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise but his life would be in danger after an explosion left him pinned in the rubble of a Baghdad hotel. From there, the story would jump back and forth between the rescue efforts and him reflecting on his life and some of his accomplishments along the way. However, what most audiences will take away was his budding relationship with a woman he would meet along his adventures named Carolina Larriera (de Armas).
Sergio was an important figure but was Sergio a film about him or was it about the relationship, a love of story of sorts, between he and Larriera? Playing more into the latter wasn’t necessarily a misguided choice, almost working by default seeing that nothing about the film overall worked. As mentioned, most of the film occurred outside of the explosion which unfortunately was all the excitement there was to be had here. De Mello was an ambitious man whose ambition often got him in trouble in both his professional and personal lives (i.e. he was consumed by his work) while Larriera just happened to be wherever he happened to be at the time for whatever reason. Though both characters were thin and bland and their relationship was tepid at best, there admittedly was enough chemistry there to make them at least somewhat watchable though it was also difficult to care about any of it.
Despite everything else, the acting was the best part of Sergio though that isn’t necessarily saying much. Moura and de Armas as de Mello and Larriera were each okay and did have some chemistry, boosted by their star power, however, it couldn’t quite save the dullness of both characters. For the most part, it was just them.
At the end of the day, Sergio was a dull exercise that may be well-intentioned though it certainly won’t be for everyone. Meanwhile, fans of its stars may find some enjoyment.
*still courtesy of Netflix*
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The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.