RResende It's hard to feel more sad with a film than what i am with this. I wanted so much that this was at least watchable, but i really wish that it could grasp the dimension of the literature that supports it. This is a terribly blind film, which i won't forget, for the worst reasons.Dinis Machado was a remarkable man. A man who lived and, incidentally, wrote. He was intelligent and his writings, besides Molero, always fill the gaps they are supposed to fill. He knew that detective stories, and noir films, are about how you build the story, not about the story itself. We shouldn't care (and we don't) about characters in a noir film besides the role they play in the narrative. They are abstract beings, there to serve a purpose, outside of their existence as characters. How happy i am when i read Machado, how well and ironically he knew that it was indifferent that he signed McShade or Donald the Duck. How well he distinguished between the bones and the flesh.Now, if any other guy was involved in this dreadful project, i wouldn't mind too much. I am used to the common inability to transport the deepness of certain writers to the medium of cinema, in fact that's quite a remarkable achievement when it is well done. But it embarrasses me as a viewer to see the remarkable Nicolau Breyner fail totally in this task. He is a man who understands acting in cinema as only a very restrict group of people in Portugal does. He clearly doesn't understand direction, he clearly doesn't control the big arch of the narrative dynamic, and the proof is that the very few watchable moments in this mess are centered around tiny pieces of good performances (topped by his own). He builds a place for his own character to show as the neglected mind, a man who had to live on aesthetics to secretly enjoy his own ethics. How close that is to the life of many Portuguese good actors. Not everything is a waste though, and i'm glad that Cláudia Vieira turned out to be nice, without being an actress. She might do well in a good project.The film is based in a story based in Don Quijote. This book is a monument, Dinis Machado understood it, as well as many generations of writers who rooted their writing on what Cervantes materialized. Borges certainly did and so did Cortázar - despite Machado is more connected to the first, and find him much more close to the second. Anyway, Borges's ideas of writing about writing (lead to infinite proportions), stories about storytelling are the waters where Machado successfully made his dives. That's where the memories of this hit-man would fit, that's the symbolic importance of the antique in this film. It's not only about a story, it's about the stories it is about. Think about it. It's not only the aesthetics of the story that is at question. Fundamentally, this has to do with the ethics and meanings of storytelling. Georgios Thanatos talks about it, it's one of the only pieces of dialogue which actually contemplates anything that matters in this stew of war sick reminiscences, skin waste and useless killings. How could Nicolau Breyner miss it? Any Portuguese average spectator will dismiss this commentary as useless, pseudo intellectual and will stand for that position based on the fact that i am evaluating a piece of entertainment as if it was a "serious" piece of film-making. Well, as an advance, before you vote "no" in IMDb, i have to say that i believe there's no entertainment without hidden serious thinking behind it. Now vote No.Incidentally, last Octobre i was outside the country and didn't realize that Dinis Machado passed away in that month. I only found out reading about this film. Double sadness. He was around, now he's not. This is a sad day in my film watching life.My opinion: 1/5 http://www.7olhares.wordpress.com

mblueyesm My theory is that they tried for a good Portuguese film and ended up doing a bad American one. Not even the nudity can save it. The rhythm is awful, I heard people snoring on the cinema, the acting is unnaturally forced and the plot tries so hard to resemble an American action film (with scenes in Afganisthan hahah)that it becomes laughable on scenes it wasn't supposed to be funny at all. And all the cars are Skodas!! What sort of hit-man drives a Skoda?! But José Wallenstein is very good as a drag queen and Nicolau Breyner does the job as an actor, no surprises there! I understand this film should be seen as a fantasy, the director's fantasy of making an "action movie", but it doesn't deliver anything worth the 5 euros you pay to see it!

miguel macedo "Oh, I can tell what they tried to do here, but didn't work." This is what you will be thinking every minute of this film. Its probably very low budget but thats no excuse for the spelling and grammatical mistakes when they speak or write in English. This could have been a good Austin Powers type Spoof, but takes itself seriously which is not working. However there are amusing moments with Vitor Norte, and the bald guy whatever his name was. Was funny to see the guy from "Mano", playing a surprisingly convincing bad guy, and Nicolau Breyner's undeniably great acting gives some of the film a bit of credibility.All in all not worth 5 euros to watch but better than sitting at home when you've exhausted all the other films.

mario_c Peter Oliveira (played by Pedro Lima) is a hit-man that is hired to kill Giorgios Thanassos a powerful man, protected by personal security and owner of a great fortune. It's his first job in Portugal, but for a professional like him, an expert hit-man also known as Mr Shade, it's just one more job that he'll do with extreme precision... NOT! STOP IT RIGHT THERE! James Bond Type of movie! Ah ah ah! You must be kidding me! Why deceive the Portuguese viewer with something it is not! And never could be with this poor, I mean POOR, quality! OK, I know it's a low cost production, made in a few days, with little money; it's probably its only excuse, but then why deceive people inducing them to believe it has quality and connecting it to something it could have never been connected?! Action movie?! James Bond's genre?! "Adventure"?! Come on! The movie is terribly slow paced; it has cheap drama totally disconnected from the plot (a James Bond film with that cheap drama would be hilarious!); it has few and poorly done "action scenes" – they appear just in the end and they are so bad that I even doubt if I can call them "action scenes"; and even the acting, which would be very important to compensate the few resources, is bad! I only appreciated the acting by Nicolau Breyner. He does a very short character but he's the only one to do it well! I won't question his qualities as a direction because it's his first job in the position and the resources were short, but so far I still prefer him as an actor... Pedro Lima seemed to have the look of a hit-man at first sight, but after watch the movie I don't think so! He does some important scenes terribly! Claudia Vieira has the most terrible mission: to catch the viewer's attention through her nudity, but doing a dull and empty character! I explain. Unlike Soraia Chaves' nudity in the film CALL GIRL or even O CRIME DO PADRE AMARO, the nude scenes of Claudia Vieira have no point to the film! They have the only purpose to call the viewer's attention! That's too obvious! In the mentioned movies, Soraia's nudity was completely justified by her characters and made sense. In CONTRATO Claudia's nudity doesn't. I'm not complaining, even because I'll say something about this movie that I NEVER thought I would, but it's a fact: The only good thing in this movie is Claudia Vieira's nudity!!!! I just think it's a terrible mission, and a very ungrateful job to her. I'm telling you that because I don't dislike her as an actress. In fact, I think she's a good actress and certainly she would deserve a better role! In the end there's a twist that could have been good, and could have worked if it wasn't so terribly acted! It's a shame but I can't score it more than 2/10 (extra point for Claudia Vieira's nudity included)! And it's a shame because I was expecting something better, at least in the same line of quality of other recent Portuguese movies like CALL GIRL or ARTE DE ROUBAR! These ones I appreciated!