Remember that awful Anthony Quinn/Bo Derek hot tub ghost story, “Ghosts Can’t Do It”? Oriundi feels like the Brazilian remake that nobody wanted. Quinn plays 93-year-old Giuseppe Padovani, patriarch of the Padovani family. When he arrived in Brazil with his wife, Caterina, 60 years ago, they established a successful pasta factory in the immigrant town of Coritiba. It is now a failing business handled by Giuseppe’s grandson Renalto, who is going through a mid-life crisis of petty proportions. At his 93rd birthday party Giuseppe spots a woman who looks remarkably like his wife who died in a tragic plane crash with her lover. Could she be back from the dead? Will Renalto pursue his dreams and find happiness? Does this movie sound any different from your average episode of The Days Of Our Lives? Oriundi is the disappointing follow-up to Central Station, the Brazilian hit also written by Marcos Bernstein. If it weren’t for Quinn’s moving portrayal of an aging man who continues to long for love, it would be a complete waste of time. The plot utterly unravels as the film plays on and it is only when Quinn is on screen that any interest in the characters is generated. While many filmmakers do just fine with large casts and multiple subplots, Bernstein, as he showed in Central Station, would have done better to stick to one story. At least John Derek had the sense to sprinkle a liberal amount of nudity into his insipid films. No such luck here.
