Silver Linings Playbook makes the mistake of insisting on having a story [REVIEW]

You probably wouldn’t watch pornographic films on your cell phone in the middle of a subway full of people, would you? However, in 2015, it was perfectly reasonable to see many people immersed in the books in the trilogy Fifty Shades of greywhich narrated the spicy romance of Anastasia Steele It is Christian Greyand won the world after the premiere of the adaptation of EL James at the movies.

Fifty Shades of grey– and its sequences, Fifty Shades Darker (2017) and Fifty Shades Freed (2018) – were a success, both literary and cinematographic, creating a path for other productions of the genre to follow, as was the case with 365 days (2020), Forbidden Desire (2023) and, now, The Good Side of Being Betrayeda new national production from Netflix, which premieres this Wednesday (25) in the streaming platform’s catalog.

In the story, based on the book of the same name by Sue Heckerone of the most successful authors of erotic books in Brazil, we met the lawyer Baby (Giovanna Lancellotti), who discovers that she is being betrayed by her fiancé, Gaius (Michael), on the eve of his wedding. She then decides to break off the relationship and pursue her life alone, but her paths end up crossing that of the mysterious judge. March (Leandro Lima).

Despite initially still being very involved in the failure of her engagement, Baby becomes curious and decides to give a chance to a possible relationship with March. However, although everything seems like a dream, they have problems to deal with, especially the lawyer, who discovers that her ex-fiance may have been responsible for defrauding the firm where they are partners.

The Good Side of Being Betrayedinitially, seems like a faithful copy of Fifty Shades of grey, from the extremely flowery sex scenes, which are great to watch, but wouldn’t be so easy to reproduce by anyone who dared; to the soundtrack, composed of hits by artists such as Iza It is Anita in sensual versions, as happened in the first film of the American trilogy with Crazy in Lovein Beyonce.

It wouldn’t be such a big problem if that were the case. The common point of these stories is that the novels presented in both Fifty Shades of grey as in 365 days, Forbidden Desire and now, The Good Side of Being Betrayed They are unusual, carnal and, especially, forbidden, which makes them extremely attractive. Dedicated to the female audience, these are films so that, when watching them, these women imagine themselves in the skin of a Anastasia Steele, Laura Biel or Baby.

However, Netflix’s new bet fails to avoid romance to try to build a story. Despite the extremely erotic previews released by the streaming platform, sex represents a very small part of the story. In one of the moments of the film, when Baby It is March are already invested in the relationship, The Good Side of Being Betrayed escapes from becoming a soft porn with a montage of the protagonists meeting and having sex in every possible place.

The resource becomes ridiculous, especially if we remember that it is something that recurs in comedy films, for example, and only serves to make room for a story that, honestly, no one was interested in. Who gives the play in The Good Side of Being Betrayedjust as curious people did the same with Fifty Shades of grey or 365 days, will do so out of interest in seeing the production’s spicy scenes. If it weren’t for that, the attractive Giovanna Lancellotti It is Leandro Lima they would not be scheduled for the job.

Still, the film insists on creating a weak and uninteresting plot, which barely holds the viewer. Half an hour without the sex scenes later, you want to turn it off The Good Side of Being Betrayed and look for something better to do, because it doesn’t deliver as much of a thriller as I would like. It is a soft pornbut who preferred not to embrace his nature and, therefore, is not even useful to please the widows of Fifty Shades of grey. Or maybe it will and we are witnessing the beginning of a new cinematic success. It’s wait and see.