Movie Review SSJ

The cinematic landscape frequently employs arboreal symbolism to explore human vulnerability, but few works utilize this metaphor as poignantly as Como Esquecer in its examination of romantic dissolution and psychological reconstruction. Through its layered narrative and visual poetry, this film transforms the clichéd adage “plenty of fish in the sea” into a profound meditation on memory, self-worth, and the nonlinear journey toward emotional recovery. What begins as a story about losing love evolves into an existential atlas guiding viewers through the uncharted territories of post-relationship identity reformation.

I. The Arboreal Paradox: When Forests Become Labyrinths

Central to the film’s thesis is its subversion of conventional breakup narratives. Unlike mainstream rom-coms that frame singleness as a transitional phase between relationships, Como Esquecer dares to linger in the uncomfortable truth: the greatest loss in long-term separations isn’t the partner, but the annihilation of a co-constructed universe. The film visualizes this through recurring shots of decaying tree rings – each concentric circle representing anniversaries, inside jokes, and shared traumas that formed the couple’s private mythology.

Director Ana Luiza Azevedo employs haunting chiaroscuro lighting during flashback sequences, bathing nostalgic moments in a golden haze that gradually disintegrates into monochromatic voids. This technique mirrors the protagonist’s cognitive dissonance – the struggle to reconcile idealized memories with the stark reality of absence. A particularly masterful sequence intercuts a laughing couple planting saplings with present-day shots of the protagonist methodically uprooting them, visually articulating how love’s organic growth can mutate into psychological entrapment.

II. Chronos vs. Kairos: The Dual Nature of Temporal Healing

The film’s most radical departure from traditional breakup narratives lies in its treatment of time. While pop psychology champions “time heals all wounds” as passive salvation, Como Esquecer presents time as both antagonist and ally – a paradoxical force that simultaneously deepens wounds and enables regeneration.

In the first act, time manifests as Chronos – the quantitative, suffocating passage marked by sleepless nights and compulsive clock-watching. Cinematographer Pablo Baião translates this through disorienting time-lapse sequences where daylight violently compresses into darkness, mirroring the protagonist’s destabilized circadian rhythms. The soundtrack amplifies this temporal distortion, blending diegetic sounds (a ticking metronome, dripping faucet) into a dissonant symphony of anxiety.

Yet as the narrative progresses, the film introduces Kairos – qualitative, transformative time. This shift is symbolized through the gradual reappearance of color palettes and the protagonist’s reengagement with artistic creation (a metaphor for self-reinvention). A pivotal scene shows her painting over a mural depicting the couple’s history, not through destruction but recontextualization – adding new landscapes around existing figures until they become minor elements in a grander tableau.

III. The Mirror Stage of Abandonment: When Lovers Become Archivists

Como Esquecer innovatively examines post-breakup self-perception through psychoanalytic lenses. The abandoned partner doesn’t merely mourn their lover, but becomes an obsessive archivist of their shared past. The film visualizes this through a haunting motif: the protagonist compulsively reorganizing mementos into ever-more elaborate collages, each arrangement representing a different narrative of blame or self-flagellation.

This curation ritual reaches its apotheosis in a surreal sequence where photographs literally swallow the protagonist, burying her under layers of crystallized memories. Only when she begins inserting her own pre-relationship artwork into these collages does the avalanche reverse – a powerful metaphor for reclaiming autonomous identity. The film suggests that healing begins not with forgetting, but with becoming the author rather than the curator of one’s history.

IV. Dendrophilia to Dendrophobia: Reconfiguring Intimacy’s Ecosystem

The much-quoted “plenty of fish in the sea” ideology receives nuanced critique through the film’s ecological framing. Early scenes present romance as a enchanted forest – lush, mysterious, teeming with possibility. Post-breakup, this ecosystem becomes threatening; every potential new connection feels like dangerous terrain where memories might ambush.

A brilliant dinner party scene encapsulates this tension. As the protagonist interacts with potential suitors, the camera adopts a dysphoric fisheye lens, distorting faces into grotesque parodies of human connection. The ambient soundtrack merges cicada drones with faint laughter echoes, creating visceral discomfort. Yet when she flees into the night, the actual forest she enters feels paradoxically serene – nature’s indifference becoming therapeutic rather than cruel.

V. Autoimmunity of the Heart: When Self-Protection Becomes Self-Immolation

The film’s boldest stroke lies in its unflinching portrayal of self-destructive impulses as logical extensions of romantic idealism. In a harrowing climax, the protagonist stands at a literal crossroads holding a pistol – not as cheap melodrama, but as philosophical inquiry. Freeze frames juxtapose potential futures: one path showing radical reinvention, the other cyclical despair.

This sequence deconstructs the toxic positivity of “moving on” culture. The gun morphs into various symbolic objects (a phone, a paintbrush, an olive branch) through rapid montage, suggesting that self-destruction and self-reinvention are often two sides of the same existential coin. Ultimately, survival emerges not from epiphanic moments, but from the accumulation of micro-choices – drinking water, answering a friend’s call, sleeping through dawn.

VI. Photosynthesis for the Soul: Toward a New Ecology of Self

The film’s concluding act transcends romantic clichés by reframing recovery as ecological succession – the natural process where forests regenerate after wildfires. Through breathtaking time-lapse photography, we see charred landscapes gradually sprout new growth, mirrored by the protagonist’s reemergence into creative vitality.

Crucially, the film avoids facile resolutions. The ex-lover reappears not for reconciliation, but as a spectral reminder that some relationships exist primarily as compost for future growth. In the final frames, the protagonist walks through an actual forest, her shadow intermittently merging with tree trunks – no longer seeking shelter in others, but becoming part of life’s vast, interconnected woodland.

Epilogue: Beyond the Final Frame
Como Esquecer achieves what few films about heartbreak dare attempt – it rejects the dichotomy between romantic cynicism and starry-eyed idealism, instead presenting love as a continuum of symbiotic transformations. Through its arboreal allegory, the movie argues that true recovery isn’t about finding “better trees,” but recognizing oneself as both seed and sequoia – capable of weathering life’s fires while nurturing ecosystems of meaning.

This 102-minute masterpiece doesn’t merely depict healing; it becomes a cinematic mycorrhizal network, subtly transferring emotional nutrients to viewers navigating their own psychological winters. For those willing to sit with its uncomfortable truths, the film offers no easy answers, but something far more valuable: a compass for growing whole in love’s aftermath.