What a surprise !

I only watched this film because Lisbon was in the title and I am Portuguese. I was expecting an unexciting film but I found the gradual plot revelations interesting and the resistance scenes exciting. And what a great cast. Unlike some, I was not put off by the lack of Portuguese spoken or the lack of subtitles.

Jeremy Irons thought his life boring compared to the characters he was investigating. But he should have looked around him and realised he was in a beautiful city. Part of the magic of the film for me was the city itself with its little side streets, the sound of the occasional Portuguese guitar and the red carnations which are distributed around the city every anniversary of the revolution.