Reasonably interesting drama. Does engage you, though there is a feeling of inevitability about the plot.

Good performances, especially from Deborah Secco in the lead role.

If you live in Brazil, you certainly have already heard about Bruna Surfitinha (both movie and person). She gained fame making porns, and going to TV shows after some time. Whether you think she is right or wrong, this is not the point of the movie.

The movie focus on her life after leaving home. Who she lived with in the prostitution life, what she had to face, among other stuff. It is good at showing that the fame messes with EVERYBODY's head and it's impossible to continue being humble as one was in the past. I believe that Raquel made her mistake once she began using cocaine; it spoiled her job, her companionship and her money. If she didn't try that drug, maybe she could have had a decent life and stopped working with that after some months.

The acting in this movie is something that I have to disagree with others opinion. For me, the acting was very bad and seemed amateurish lots of times, specially in the first 30 minutes. Also, the scene with the jerk of her school was veery very lame, they could have made it thousand times better. I felt embarrassed for the filmmakers in that scene. Also, the man that plays her brother acts very bad. He spoiled the scene that was supposed to be dramatic and ended up being lame for the bad acting.

Sadly, this film didn't show what were the reasons that she left home, didn't approach her relationship with her family. So it got a little hard for us to understand her reasons to do that. It felt incomplete for missing this aspect. However, this film is still average and entertaining, despite the lameness.

Raquel Pacheco was adopted by an upper middle class family in Sao Paulo. However, at 17 she broke away from this life to live in a brothel. She uses Bruna as her working name, and Surfistinha as her nickname. She does well for a while, but her relationship with the other women becomes turbulent. She moves to a new apartment setting with Gabi after meeting Carol at a dance club. She has even more success, starts a blog about her activities, which brings her even more business. She enjoys the spotlight for a while. Eventually she starts using drugs; unfortunately, the drug use and the fame hit about the same time. She crashes over this, and ends up chasing men in cars.

After recovering from the drugs, she writes a book about her experiences, and the book does fairly well. Her popularity in Brazil inspired the current movie, which is a dramatic representation shown on television of a section of her life.

Netflix showed this as 'Confessions of a Brazilian Call Girl.'

------Conclusions------

There is quite a lot of skin and simulated sexual activity shown in this film. TV14 seems a bit light of a rating; NC17 might be closer to accurate. So watch under advisement.

Bruna Surfistinha is a soft core porn film that exploits Deborah Secca's physique more than anything else. The acting is better than that of American 'reality' television, but not by a whole lot.

As a dramatic treatment of a difficult life, the film seems too rosy, even though it depicts hard times that Raquel experienced.

One line summary: Rise, fall, and recovery of a Brazilian call girl and media star.

Three stars of five.

------Scores-------

Cinematography: 7/10 The film looks good for the most part, but it often shows TV/VHS quality rather than theatrical quality.

Sound: 6/10 was not that relevant to me. I do not understand Brazilian Portuguese, and the incidental music was not a factor. The subtitles seemed to be in reasonable parallel to the actors' intentions.

Acting: 5/10 OK, but not great, as noted above. Deborah Secco and Drica Moraes were the best.

Screenplay: 6/10 The film does tell a story, though it is more than a bit disjointed at times.