Que Horas Ela Volta? / The Second Mother (2015) Review

Lucas Versantvoort / 5 Oct 2015

There have been many films about class relations: Renoir's La Règle du Jeu and so on. The best of the bunch manage to analyze class differences--and similarities--in intriguing ways. Que Horas Ela Volta? is one of those films.

Val is a housemaid for an upper-class family in São Paulo. She lives miles away from her daughter Jéssica, but the job allows her to provide for her which lessens the pangs of guilt at least somewhat. Val actually lives in the residence, works very hard and in the thirteen years that pass, she forms a motherly bond with the son, Fabinho. His actual mother, Bárbara, is very career-oriented, you see, so you can see why he latches onto Val. We see how Val is simultaneously well off, but not truly respected. She presents Bárbara with a gift: a set of cups with a black/white color pattern. Bárbara acts as if she's pleasantly surprised and tells Val they'll save it for a special occasion. Well, the special occasion arrives, a party. Val brings out the cups, but Bárbara berates her, having already forgotten Val gifted them to her. Then one day, Val gets a call from Jéssica who's looking to participate in the admission exam at the University of São Paulo. She'd need a place to stay. Val, of course, immediately agrees, but what Jéssica doesn't know is that Val takes her work home with her, so to speak. It turns out that Jéssica is very confident and smart and it immediately becomes clear her presence will shake up this upper-class residence quite a bit.

This being a film about class relations, it makes sense that this is the most stimulating aspect. It's funny to see this rich family's discomfort when the housemaid's daughter--of all people--appears more confident and smarter than Fabinho. Or note the similarities in expectations: Val works in almost slave-like fashion, but doesn't rebel, because she's been brought up with the notion that this is the way the world works. The rich family obviously holds similar opinions, otherwise they'd treat Val better. Another interesting thing to note is the role of the mother (the English title for the film is The Second Mother). Val hasn't been the mother to Jéssica she feels she should have been due to the literal distance between them. Then you've got Bárbara whose relationship with Fabinho is pretty much non-existent despite the fact they occupy the same living space.

The film almost risks falling into the familiar trap of showing the lower class folks to be real human beings as opposed to the upper class scumbags whose morals and decency have slowly eroded over the years in the pursuit of the almighty dollar (or peso), etc. While Val and Jéssica - and thus the 'lower class' - ultimately triumph, the overall portrayal of these characters remains nuanced and believable.

And that's how I'd describe the entire film: nuanced and believable. I do think Val's character development could've been paid more attention (particularly toward the end) and Jéssica could've been introduced a little sooner as that's when film really comes alive, but overall it's a good examination of class relations that doesn't get bogged down in melodrama.