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The Man Who Copied
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Wikipedia article
'The Man Who Copied' (; ) is a 2003 Brazilian crime comedy-drama film written and directed by Jorge Furtado, set in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
'The Man Who Copied' takes the form of a "how-to" guide for social mobility. Despite the crime involved in the film, it still has the feel of a lighthearted romantic comedy (which is a relatively new genre in Brazilian film and television, introduced in the 1990s by the American and British film and television industries).
The film won eleven awards, including Best Picture from the So Paulo Association of Art Critics Award in 2004.[http://www.casacinepoa.com.br/en/the-movies/production/feature-films/o-homem-que-copiava O HOMEM QUE COPIAVA (The Man who copied) | Casa de Cinema de Porto Alegre] The 2003 release date helped the film gain momentum, as for from the 1990s to the early 2000s, Brazilian films began getting more competitive in both the national and international market (especially with the release of 'City of God').
Plot
Nineteen-year-old Andr Maciel (Lzaro Ramos) works as a photocopy machine operator in a convenience store in Porto Alegre. Disillusioned with his life and obsessed with material wealth, he dreams of being an illustrator, but his comics, though well drawn, are rejected by publishers. After Andr returns home from work, he spends time in his room drawing or spying on Slvia (Leandra Leal), a neighbor who lives in an apartment across the street with her father Antunes, with binoculars.
Following Silvia to work one morning, Andr finds that she works at a lingerie store, coincidentally called Slvias. Once he follows Slvia inside the store, he realizes he needs an excuse to be in there, and tells Slvia that he is looking for a birthday gift for his mother. Slvia suggests that he buy a robe that costs R$38. However, Andr cannot afford this, and he promises Slvia that he will return and buy it later.
One evening, he visits a club with Marins (Luana Piovani), an attractive co-worker, who introduces him to a friend of hers Cardoso, (Pedro Cardoso), who works in antiques. Andr is initially impressed by the well dressed Cardoso, whom he assumes is well off. Later, when they are alone, Cardoso hits on Marins and she refuses him, all but admitting that she is a gold digger and having suspected earlier that Cardoso is poor from his resoled shoes, and that she dislikes Cardoso's smoking.
Leaving the club, Andre boards a bus and sees Silvia, wanting to make small talk, he promises to buy the robe at next opportunity.
Still believing that Cardoso is rich, Andr visits him at his place of work and finds that he sells junk for a living. Over coffee, Andr realizes that Cardoso also has no money and in a later scene, that Cardoso is as obsessed with material wealth as him, believing it to be necessary to woo Marins.
By chance, Andr's boss leaves him with a R$50 bill in order to run some errands. Giving in to temptation, Andr photocopies the note bank notes at his job. To dispose of the note, Andr begins gambling in the lottery. One of Andr's counterfeit notes is accidentally used by Cardoso to buy them drinks and Andr reveals his counterfeiting to Cardoso. On their lottery runs, Andr plays the sequence of numbers 1 2 3 4 5 6', earning him the mockery of Cardoso, who believes that that combination will never come out.
A relationship blossoms between Andr and Slvia, and eventually, Andr asks for her hand in marriage. Slvia says yes, however, Andr tells her that they cannot get married right away; Andr feels as though he needs more money in order to provide for Slvia more money than he can get from counterfeiting.
Andr hatches a plan to pull a bank heist with Cardoso and purchases a gun (using more counterfeit money) from Feitosa, a drug dealing acquaintance of his. The heist is successful, however, Andr was unmasked and was subsequently forced to shoot Antunes, a passerby, to make his getaway.
Andr and Cardoso are both relieved to find that the police sketch of the bank robber looks nothing like him. That joy is compounded when the pair find out Andr won the lottery. However, Andr is worried about being recognized should his lottery win be published in the news in light of the bank robbery. The pair rope in Marins to help them claim the winnings.
Flush with cash, Andr, Cardoso and Marins go on a shopping spree. Cardoso and Marins check into a luxurious hotel, where they have sex. Andr asks Silvia to leave with him, but she believes that Antunes would not allow it. Andr agrees to meet Antunes.
Meeting at a restaurant, and while the other party is not present, Andr learns that Silvia hates Antunes, who she believes isn't her real father, Antunes reveals to Andr that while he recognizes him, he will not turn Andr in nor does he want any of the heist money, but half of the lottery money.
Leaving the restaurant, Andr is accosted by Feitosa, who had been arrested earlier when he tried to spend some of the counterfeit money given to him by Andr but managed to get released quickly due to having underworld connections. Feitosa had figured out that Andr is the bank robber, having been questioned about the gun that he sold Andr, and demands the heist money. Andr agrees to pass the money to Feitosa the following day.
That night, Silvia confronts Andr, having learnt about his part in the bank heist from Antunes. Andr initially proposes to pay off Antunes with the heist money, but Silvia proposes to kill him instead.
The next day, Andr double crosses Feitosa and leads him into a trap, killing him. Later, Andr, Cardoso, Marins and Silvia set a trap for Antunes. Initially, the plan goes awry, but they succeed in killing him and framing him for the bank heist.
The film ends with the four friends at the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, where Slvia meets the man she believes is her father, Paulo (Paulo Jos), while also subsequently revealing that she had orchestrated some of her initial coincidental meetings with Andr.
Cast
Themes
'Social Mobility/Wealth': 'The Man Who Copied' deals the hierarchy in Brazilian society based on material wealth and what it takes to move up. Andr's voice over throughout the film turns ' The Man Who Copied' into an ironic manual for social mobility, but it also is a classic Furtado stylistic move used to create intimacy with the characters. Hearing Andr's story through the voice over helps the audience sympathize with him despite the numerous crimes he and his friends commit. Mainly, his compares the different levels of freedom possible by the money and the alienation and lack of choice provocated by the lack of this. The voice over helps the audience understand the factors that drive Andr to commit crimes in order to achieve wealth and climb the social hierarchy, because his voice overs reveal that he has good, non-greedy intentions.
'Luck': Furtado illuminates that the characters in 'The Man Who Copied' (who are all lower-middle class Brazilians working mundane jobs) have as much depth as the audience of this film (presumably middle to upper-middle class audiences). Furtado displays that wealth of any kind is most often due to luck (whether it be the family one was born into or a lottery prize) through many of the events impacting Andr. The first display of luck for Andr is the R$50 note his boss gives him, followed by the coincidence of the note being given to him the same day as his shop gets a color printer, his winning the lottery, and the fact that Slvia was also pursuing him secretly as he pursued her. With this, Furtado makes to social commentary that our spot in the social hierarchy is based on luck.
See also
* 'Currency' (film), an Indian Malayalam film loosely based on 'The Man Who Copied'
References
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