About the comment of Armanda Benavente
I agree with some issues you refer, but I totally disagree with other! First, what have “crisis” to do with it?! If you meant there’s a crisis in the Portuguese cinema I guess this crisis always existed, it’s nothing new, at all! The only prosperous period of the Portuguese cinema was probably the 40’s! But if there’s a crisis in the Portuguese cinema the Portuguese public has part of the guilt. There’re plenty good Portuguese films that the main public doesn’t even know they exist! And it’s only media’s fault? No, it’s not. The problem is that for the majority of the Portuguese public a national film is never good or well done! I’m not saying it’s the case of “Second Life”, but I already watched the movie and I think that in spite of not being great the movie is not that bad.
Let’s see what I agree and disagree in your comment:
I agree the plot should have been more developed and ends being a bit superficial for the issues it tries to expose, but I don’t think the movie lacks a plot or it has no meaning at all. In fact the characters should have been deeper and the mixing between those two lives should have been done in a different and more explicit way. I use to appreciate non-linear plots/films but when they are well done. “Second Life” tries to do it but lacks some quality in this particular point. However I don’t think “narrative structure is absurdly amateurish" or "there’s no story"/"there’re no characters” as you say.
The nude scenes are probably a bit out of context and a little more intense that they use to be in the Portuguese cinema, but they aren’t that different from many American blockbusters that everybody sees. If nude and sexual scenes appear in an American film nobody says anything or criticize the movie because of that. As it is in a Portuguese film it’s different! It’s “deprived of any beauty” as you say. The main problem is that those nude scenes are used as promotion to catch the Portuguese viewers’ attention to the film, and it’s done in such way that the viewer will watch the movie just thinking about it and doesn’t care about anything else! Like happened in “O crime do Padre Amaro” or even “Call Girl”. Those are good films with a nice plot and nice production and where the Soraia’s nudity is well contextualized by the plot, but if we see the trailers a great part of it are the sexual scenes! What happens then? It creates a wrong idea of the movie! Like a friend of mine that said that didn’t watch “Call Girl” because “it’s just sex” (as she said), and it’s not! “Call Girl” is a good film with or without the sexual scenes! About this “Second Life” is almost the same thing. And I just say almost because I think the plot could have been a little more explored and the characters deeper, as told.