At the center of this claustrophobic, hyperrealist domestic drama—chock-full of murder, mayhem, adultery, hypocrisy, and lower-class sleaze—is that popular late-20th-century hero, the hit man. A recent convert to religion, he preaches morality at home and matter-of-factly wipes out whole families on the job. Meanwhile his young blond bombshell of a wife is boffing the butcher’s son, his slutty punk teenage daughter is playing around with his partner in crime, and he’s proposing marriage to his churchgoing mistress. In this debut film by Roberto Moreira, produced by Fernando Meirelles, the director of City of God, one-note irony tends to equate poverty with promiscuity and class with taste, and all the overblown decor can’t make up for the lack of style. In Portuguese with subtitles. 96 min.
