In "Alice's House," an overlooked woman takes a stand

With an elderly live-in mother, a trio of selfish young-adult sons and a taxi-driver husband who's cheating on her, Alice (Carla Ribas) is a Brazilian woman "of a certain age," well past her prime but entirely deserving of the physical and emotional satisfactions that have faded from her daily existence. Peggy Lee's "Is That All There Is?" could be the theme song of her life as a manicurist in São Paulo, where she lives with the nagging fear that her sexuality is being slowly extinguished.

In a remarkably assured, no-frills feature debut, Brazilian documentarian Chico Teixeira draws a vivid portrait of marital and familial dysfunction in "Alice's House," where female desires take a back seat to the subtle cruelties of male entitlement. Through careful observation of quiet, unadorned details of human behavior, we bear intimate witness to Alice's desperate need for validation, which remains elusive in a small apartment full of self-centered males.

Where a less-sensitive director might have favored histrionic melodrama, Teixeira's simple, matter-of-fact approach feels completely authentic, as if his camera were an invisible occupant of Alice's less-than-happy home, never missing a fleeting moment of emotional revelation. In delivering those moments, Ribas is almost miraculously in tune with her director.

When a former lover appears with kind words and gifts, Alice latches on to potential romance with justified enthusiasm; when you've felt betrayed for years, hope is the greatest aphrodisiac. And if that hope should prove to be misguided, you can hardly blame Alice for pursuing it anyway. She's an optimist of the heart, doing her best to battle the pessimism of the heartless.

— Jeff Shannon, Special to The Seattle Times