'The Other Side of the Street' - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

'The Other Side of the Street': An elegant essay on growing older

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

It takes an extraordinary actress to play an ordinary woman. Fernanda Montenegro (an Oscar nominee for 1998's "Central Station") is one such actress, and her performance as Regina, a lonely woman in her mid-60s living in Rio, is exemplary.

Regina isn't, perhaps, so much ordinary as she is average. She's emblematic of so many older women who find themselves becoming invisible as a youth-obsessed culture either blithely ignores them or tactfully turns its head the other way. Age isn't becoming — nowhere more than the flesh-fixated world of Rio.

Strand Releasing

'The Other Side of the Street'

The verdict: A diverting character study/romance/Miss Marple-ish mystery.

Director: Marcos Bernstein
Starring: Fernanda Montenegro, Raul Cortez, Laura Cardoso, Luis Carlos Persy, Milene Pizarro
Run time: 98 minutes
Release date: May 6, 2005
Rating: Not rated.

When Regina dolls herself up — lipstick and leather pants — and heads for a dance club where everyone is at least a quarter of a century younger than she is, you brace yourself. This is not the cure for loneliness.

Then Regina reveals her "secret identity." She's a member of a volunteer group of senior citizens (her code name: Snow White) who use their imposed invisibility to be the eyes and ears of the local police. Regina isn't interested in nabbing a date. She's out to nab a child prostitution ring.

On nights that she stays at home, she perches by her window, binoculars in hand, spying on her across-the-street neighbors (hence the title) like Jimmy Stewart in "Rear Window." People are eating, watching TV, chatting and ... wait ... did that man just give his wife a lethal injection?

But when Regina dutifully reports what she saw, nothing's done. Turns out the apparent killer is a highly respected judge (Raul Cortez, also excellent). So Regina decides to do some snooping on her own. Things don't turn out as she — or we — expect.

"The Other Side of the Street" offers something of a Miss Marple-ish mystery, but for the most part, it's a gentle character study as well as an elegant little essay on the isolation and fears of growing older.

First-time director Marcos Bernstein (who wrote "Central Station") keeps his camera quiet and lets his accomplished actors do the heavy lifting. The result is a poignant little film that explores loss and new leases on life with intelligence and care.