Two Drifters (2005)

43% of critics liked it
(14 reviews)
52% of users liked it
(533 ratings)

A heartbroken Portuguese man mourning the loss of his lover to a tragic car accident finds solace in the arms of a woman driven to insanity by her need to bear children in O Fantasma director João Pedro Rodrigues' psychologically mangled melodrama. It was the very day of Pedro (João Carreira) and… More A heartbroken Portuguese man mourning the loss of his lover to a tragic car accident finds solace in the arms of a woman driven to insanity by her need to bear children in O Fantasma director João Pedro Rodrigues' psychologically mangled melodrama. It was the very day of Pedro (João Carreira) and Rui's (Nuno Gil) one-year anniversary that Pedro was sent careening through his shattered window only to die moments later in the arms of his devastated lover. But as fate would have it, Pedro isn't the only one who has pledged undying love to the recently departed. After rejecting her most recent boyfriend for his refusal to impregnate her, increasingly erratic wannabe mother Odete (Ana Cristina De Oliveira) brazenly crashes Pedro's funeral only to lets loose with the shocking claims she was both deeply in love with the unfortunate car-crash victim and that she is also the mother-to-be of the deceased man's unborn child. Later taken in by Pedro's mother after holding vigil at his graveside for many days and nights, Odete begins to experience a startling transformation as her child reaches term and Rui begins to see his deceased lover in the eyes of a woman whose singular goal in life is to give birth. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 38 min.
Directed By: João Pedro Rodrigues
Written By: João Pedro Rodrigues, Paulo Rebels
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Jun 23, 2006 Limited
On DVD: Oct 17, 2006
Studio: Strand Releasing

Critic Reviews

John McMurtrie, San Francisco Chronicle
An overwrought weepie, it may be inspired by the recent dramas of Pedro Almodóvar, but it comes off as Almodóvar Lite -- muy lite.
Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times
Climaxing with a union as heartfelt as it is perverse, the movie asserts with eccentric force the belief that love knows no bounds, be they physical, spiritual or sensible.
Nathan Lee, New York Times
Neither sentimental nor cruel, yet touching and trenchant, the movie sustains a profound ambivalence right up to the final shot.
Bill Stamets, Chicago Sun-Times
I don't get it.
Jessica Reaves, Chicago Tribune
This movie doesn't have enough heart or energy to inspire wonder -- with a weak script, utterly unsympathetic characters and a nonsensical plot, it can barely keep plodding along.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
It's hard to say what's worse in the strange Portuguese drama Two Drifters: the insufferable wordless stretches, or the sudsy dialogue.
Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
The tone here is slightly absurd and sometimes even sweet.
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly
Director João Pedro Rodrigues has a poetic visual sense, but the novice actors remain so frozen in deer-in-headlights reaction shots, it's all but impossible to get onboard for their predicaments.
Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks
An arresting and lucid study of how gay men and straight women often compete for the same objects of lust, the same velvety nostalgias for a certain vision of love.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Though the film contains many haunting images, the absence of a solid emotional foundation makes its increasingly preposterous story developments feel arbitrary and ultimately pointless.
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
Like O Fantasma, perhaps the scariest and finest film ever made about the compulsion of gay desire, Two Drifters' sensual-spiritual plumbing is totally off-the-map.

Read all 11 critic reviews

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Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Two Drifters", Odete(Ana Cristina De Oliveira) is a supermarket worker on rollerskates who desperately wants to have a baby with her security guard boyfriend, Alberto(Carloto Cotta). After he finds out she has gone off the pill without his… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Two Drifters", Odete(Ana Cristina De Oliveira) is a supermarket worker on rollerskates who desperately wants to have a baby with her security guard boyfriend, Alberto(Carloto Cotta). After he finds out she has gone off the pill without his knowledge, he angrily walks out of her life. So, Odete turns her attentions to another man, Pedro(Joao Carreira), who died recently in a car accident, just after he and his boyfriend, Rui(Nuno Gil), celebrated their first anniversary. And now Odete is claiming to be pregnant with Pedro's child...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Two Drifters" is an unbelievable, unintentionally funny(I'll never listen to "Moon River" quite the same way again) movie about a thoroughly unlikable woman. The movie crosses the thin line from being provocative to ridiculous with gleeful abandon. There is a possibility that it could be considered to be about societal homophobia, but even that explanation does not allow for the late detour to beautiful downtown Polanskiville.[/font]