Film Review" 'bossa Nova'

In "Bossa Nova," director Bruno Barreto serves up a dreamy Rio de Janeiro that pulsates to the beat of Antonio Carlos Jobim bossa nova classics, a Rio of midnight swims and intimate strolls along Copacabana beach, where romance lingers in the humid night air.

It's the Rio of travel agents' dreams rather than the urban nightmare Barreto portrayed in his frightening 1978 crime melodrama "Amor Bandido." While this Rio may intrigue romantically inclined adults, even they may feel cheated by lightweight fare that is more a tempting Brazilian hors d'oeuvres than a satisfying dinner by candlelight. Sony Classics should anticipate no more than modest returns in urban markets.

Although an ensemble piece, the film very much stars Barreto's wife, American actress Amy Irving. Playing an English teacher who stays on in Rio following the death of her Brazilian husband, she remains aloof from this tropical pleasure zone. Like a flower placed between the pages of a book for years, Irving's Mary Ann Simpson looks beautifully preserved but dead to her surroundings.

Barreto and writers Alexandre Machado and Fernanda Young, working from Sergio Sant'Anna's novel "Miss Simpson," place Mary Ann amid a whirligig of comic misunderstandings and near-farcical romantic pursuits that mostly feel forced and mechanical.

The paths of nine characters crisscross Mary Ann's, with attorney Pedro Paulo (veteran actor Antonio Fagundes) at the focal point. Pedro's wife (Debora Bloch) has left him for her tai chi teacher (Kazuo Matsui). Mary Ann teaches English in the same building that houses the tailor shop of Paulo's father (Alberto de Mendoza).

One of Mary Ann's students (Drica Moraes) has fallen in love, sight unseen, with a New Yorker with whom she trades lies about lifestyle and physical attributes via the Internet. Another student, a soccer star (Alexandre Borges), must brush up on his English upon his move to a British club. Then Pedro's half-brother (Pedro Cardoso) falls for Pedro's legal intern (Giovanna Antonelli), who in turn develops a thing for the soccer star. Everything comes to a head with the arrival of the Internet lover (Stephen Tobolowsky).

The film's reliance on perfectly timed entrances and exits and fortuitous coincidences at times gives "Bossa Nova" a contrived feeling. Barreto manages the multiple plots and love affairs well, and the film is not without its moments of subtle charm and amiable comedy. The music -- both Jobim's and original work by Eumir Deodato -- and Pascal Rabaud's postcard-perfect cinematography establish the romance of this mythical Rio even if the viewer doesn't always buy into the romantic trysts.

The mood is playful, but the characters lie very near the surface. And the attempt to mingle laughter with tears never comes off. The most egregious stumble comes when Barreto brings all of the characters together for a climax at a hospital, where Pedro's father lies dying of a heart attack.

And Irving's feminine enigma floats through the movie in a way that Brazilians may find seductive and exotic. But to American viewers, she may seem like an emotional zombie.



BOSSA NOVA

Sony Pictures Classics

LC Barreto & Filmes do Equador

in association with Globo Filmes

Producers: Lucy Barreto, Luiz Carlos Barreto

Director: Bruno Barreto

Screenwriters: Alexandre Machado,

Fernanda Young

Based on a novel by: Sergio Sant'Anna

Executive producer: Bruno Barreto

Director of photography: Pascal Rabaud

Production designers: Cassio Amarante,

Carla Caffe

Music: Eumir Deodato

Costume designer: Emilia Duncan

Editor: Ray Hubley

Color/stereo

Cast:

Mary Ann: Amy Irving

Pedro Paulo: Antonio Fagundes

Acacio: Alexandre Borges

Tania: Debora Bloch

Nadine: Drica Moraes

Sharon: Giovanna Antonelli

Trevor: Stephen Tobolowsky

Roberto: Pedro Cardoso

Running time -- 95 minutes

MPAA rating: R