User reviews

This film has great exterior shots of the American west and some really bad acting. The theme is OK--that coincidence may be more than just that. So what else is there to say?IF you have never been to the west or you want to recapture an experience, then you must see this film.

So is this film fun: yes and no. If you can afford Mania's awful acting, then this film clearly is recommended for you!

Movie was good ,a bit slow in areas. Mostly the fact that the music and other sound was louder than the voices was irritating as. Hardly hesrd acword they were saying through out tgw entire film.

As an avid movie fan, not a cinema critic, just a fan of good movies... I enjoyed this movie immensely. There are times when I want to see a movie based on certain criteria, however this was not one of them. There are times I become so frustrated with reviewers who pick apart a movie to death... get a life some of you. I just wanted to sit back and enjoy a decent movie. Not over-think it to death with how the cinematographer was too into hi/her scenes, how bad/good the acting was... do you think you could do a better job? Get some popcorn curl up alone or with someone you love, pop this movie in and escape for a while... suspend belief... this ain't no documentary... enjoy the soundtrack (awesome in my opinion), and have a good time. Remember this is just a review from a former Bronx NYC boy. Enjoy it.

This was a good movie, and it would have been much better if the sound had not been totally messed up. I loved how the events tie together. This would have been so much better if the sound had not been screwed up. Looking at some of the other reviews I can only think this is something that occurred after it was released. I would hope that no one would release a movie with the sound this unbalanced. I would have given this movie a better rating except the sound made it frustrating to watch.

Backlight is a brilliant script: A great story, with nicely shaped characters whom, one way or another, got me thinking "Sometimes, life is so full of coincidences that it's almost unreal.". Obviously, it doesn't matter how strong the script is, if it's transformation to the big screen is sloppy, but with Backlight, everything works in perfection. The multi layered story has been excellently transferred to the screen and the final product is like a perfectly tuned symphony: No note is false, and as the band plays, you get swept away by their music. One of the reasons for this, is a great cast, of whom I think, no one deserves more credit than others... and then again: I really loved Joaquim De Almeida, but above all the memorable character of Lucy, played by the young actress Skyler Day. She will always shine brightly in my mind. A definitely must see movie!

This was a fun movie. I enjoyed watching everything come together. The only negative thing about it was the mom. Her acting was stiff. But all the other actors were spot on. The stories were good. The scenery was amazing. The flow was smooth. I wasn't left really questioning anything. Maybe the ending a little bit but some writers like you to finish the story yourself. The movie was imaginative. These are the kind I usually enjoy. I really liked the relationship between Matt and the boy. Makes me wonder what the kid really knew. The joking with the old man driver had me laughing. Kept my interest all the way to end credits.

This was not a bad film. It had an interesting story - a chain of events, although they did not seem connect, eventually made a full circle. Dialogue were sometimes disjointed, from time to time, it sounded like 'reading a script', not like real conversation, but it was not that bad. Half of actors were decent; the other half were trying-too-hard. Production value was more or less like a TV show. It was enjoyable until... the music score; it was horror. Why did the director repeat the same score through out the movie? Why did the director feel the need filling every minute of movie with sound (that same movie score)? Why? It really drove me nut.

It's of no surprise that Fernando Fragata's Backlight made the list of the Top 10 most profitable Portuguese films by the Portuguese Film Institute. Backlight is without a doubt a great film. It also turned out to be a very controversial film, simply because not a lot of films like this come out of Portugal. Despite the fact that the film was shot entirely in the USA and is in English Language, it's still a Portuguese film, because the writer/director/producer Fernando Fragata is Portuguese.

I have seen many films with interlocking stories and about a lot of different people and their lives, but rarely we find it as emotional and well-made as this. The plot was iffy to me at first, but after the first 10 minutes I got really into it. Backlight really surprised me in the way that actually none of the characters know each other at first. The screenplay was very clever to just have like a glimpse into these people's lives. I thought it made the story unpredictable, and when the heavy parts come, you are really into it and I found myself totally absorbed. The characters are very fleshed out making you invest emotionally in each one with no effort.

The performances all around were brilliant, but to me the stand-out was Skyler Day. I thought her story was the strongest, weirdest and sometimes funniest at the same time, and it was really well written. I thought her acting was phenomenal, and I think she is predestined to have a successful career. Joaquim de Almeida and Scott Bailey were very good too, in a more subtle way. I thought the direction and cinematography was phenomenal. The grand finale has one of the most amazing and beautiful slow-motion sequences in cinema history.

You should watch this film. On Prime in Stereo on TV speakers to improve the audio. The cinematography was amazing. The locations were stunning. Award worthy.

The Story was strong. Had it not been for the grade-school acting by a few of the characters, I'm thinking of Mom, this would have been an amazing movie. I was sitting up in my seat as the storylines converged. Slow to get there so shortening things would improve viewer attention. I'm not sure the early foreshadowing of the car rolling helped things or just added to viewer confusion. I think it made things worse.

I've read some reviews saying the storyline was forced and the script mangled. They aren't wrong, but they aren't seeing the big picture. This story is all about the climax. Getting there is quite convoluted so at times the viewer has to be lead there, witness the dreadful narration in the overwrought air-park script, but those times are long forgotten by the time we get to the end and all you are left with is, I hate to repeat it, an uplifting experience.

The only thing in the movie worse than the acting (not all of which was bad) were the off-screen dialogs. Please, please re-record these with a proper voice actors, not someone not 'phoning it in'. This would have been a better movie had the off-screen voices been subtitled from any language other than English. Watching this in my native tongue was painful at times, credit some terrible dialog and overwrought script. Should be a great international success. Too bad no one has dubbed it yet, at least on Amazon.

In general I find movie dialog difficult to hear. Others have said the sound mix was awful, overpowering the dialog. Perhaps this was a godsend done on purpose. I watched this on Amazon Prime in stereo from TV speakers. The dialog was clear and the music thematic and uplifting. Perhaps had I watched it in surround it would have sucked. I don't know.

I just checked. In Dolby the background sounds and music were overwhelming and need to be remixed by someone who has graduated from high-school. If you hated the sound when you first saw this movie, watch it again on Prime in stereo from mediocre TV speakers and you will gain a much better appreciation of the film.

In the process of testing the audio, knowing how the story unfolds, the movie, characters, and dare I say it, the acting hang together much better. I'm no professional but someone dropped the ball on this. It seems as if the final cuts were done by someone who had seen this film dozens of times and lost the perspective of the first-time viewer.

@Fernando_Fragata: Great movie. I am an amateur so take these comments for what they are worth: Rewrite, shorten and re-record all off-screen dialog with voice actors that can show some emotion (don't overdo it). I'm thinking of the dreadful therapist dialog. Edit and shorten on-screen to match. Get a second opinion from qualified script and voice consultants. Just remind them that none of the film is getting re-shot. Tone way down the background sound effects. Turn up the dialog from the soft-spoken male character. Bring in a sound professional to get it right. A few plots and acting were overdone. I'm thinking of Mom. Cutting her non-critical scenes and shortening all of her critical scenes will improve things. The older male character scenes were fine but in the interest of getting to the point I'd look to shorten the non-plot scenes here too. Did the foreshadow of the car rolling help the film? Looks like a patch added to make things more attainable to the viewer but I don't think it succeeded. Consider cutting it. Do a complete rewrite, shorten and rerecord all off-screen voices by professional voice actors that can provide just a bit of emotion to their reading. Don't over do it. Re-release this in 4k as a 2020 'directors cut' and sell it to Netflix. It will be worth the effort and expense to turn this good movie into a great movie. I've never heard of a 10-year old movie remix getting awards, but this would be worth it.

Best of luck.

I'm from Portugal and i really wanted this movie to be good, to be proud of Portuguese cinema but...

The movie has a lot of mistakes, like out of focus pictures (scene where mother and daughter talk on the roof) and the scene where the boy is talking with the old men on the car.

The acting is mostly bad, except for the Mother which is REALLY REALLY, dreadful bad.

The idea of the movie was good, but the bad plot, the catastrophic acting (have i mentioned how bad the mother's acting was?) and out of focus pictures just become unacceptable.

There are far better movies in Portugal, we didn't needed to go to USA to make such a bad movie...

If you want my advice watch real Portuguese movies and not this...

First off, the film has an interesting screenplay. The scenes in the Mohave Desert are striking. That said, it's difficult to understand the actors speaking during the film, with the constant barrage of the overly loud soundtrack! So, very disappointing sound engineering. Needless to say, it makes trying to watch the film very annoying. Another thing to note, was the angry mom. I felt it was acted poorly, with no help from the script she had to read.

Backlight is a strange but wonderful film. First it's a 100% Portuguese production but it was filmed 100% in the United States. How strange is that? Very! Production decisions apart, the film works pretty well. The script is brilliant, the acting is excellent and the cinematography is beautiful, which makes Backlight my film of the year, and probably the best film I've seen in quite a few years. The film looks at the adversities of life and gambles with it. The characters are all interlinked in a very random way, it's a little like 6 degrees of separation. The film is set mostly in the deserts of Nevada and Arizona and the director keeps the shots wide revealing the magnificent backdrops and always moves the camera wisely to bring the picture alive. The characters are deep and insightful, each has a serious problem to face up to and the subtle, naturalistic way their issues play out make for truly emotional cinema. This is not a film about heroes, it's a film about trying to make the right choices when your back is to the wall, and the doubts that go with this. Great uplifting movie, especially if you are and have been with depression. I think this film could be a great alternative to Prozac! : )

What a terrible disappointment this film was! I was expecting a nice film about the thematic the trailer suggests (crossed lives; destiny; etc) and not this garbage where broken cellular phones speak words or ghostly GPS leads the way or even hillbilly guys are allergic to latex!! I mean, all this is so stupid and absurd! The plot is silly, the characters are silly (excluding one or two), the soundtrack is unbearable (not to mention the scene when some popular Portuguese music is playing in a motel in California!!), the development and the disclosure of the plot are also annoying (I could use words like boring, pathetic, absurd, stupid, unrealistic; but no, all of those "coincidences" are just annoying!). As said, when I watched the trailer and I saw that scene when Joaquim d'Almeida is in the desert ready to commit suicide and the voice of the GPS said "Turn back you are in a wrong way to your destination" I found it a very good premise and I was expecting a nice film… I got this silly drama full of stupid lines (the screenplay is terrible!) and pathetic disclosures instead! Too bad to be true! I score it 3/10.

I must have seen a different copy of the movie than other reviewers.

All throughout the entire movie, the traffic noise, car noise, the relentlessly loud soundtrack, crickets, a light breeze, even the scene where the bed sheet and pillow is rustling is exponentially louder than any of the voices. How could someone sit through this?

I had to make a very focused effort to even make out some of the voices of the murmuring actors against all the incredibly loud background noise and orchestral music. Even so, I probably only understood a fraction of it. My wife thought it probably wasn't meant to be heard, but to just show the narrative as it progressed. It really seemed like the microphones were a few feet away from the actors.

Someone really needs to learn how to mix audio. I rarely see soundtracks this incompetent, even low-budget independent movies.

This movie really NEEDED additional dubbing with the voices. Even if lip-syncing wasn't perfect, you would at least hear what was said.

Even so, I will add that it sounded to me like Mid-Side recording utilized with the Mid missing. If the voices are centered, this results in loss of vocal audio and discernible only the background dynamics of a dialogue

Started off well, became really boring as it went on.

Too much talking, made for teens. Watched the entire movie on fast-forward.

Unnecessarily long mouth-to-mouth to an old man makes you want to wash your own mouth.

Good photography and desert locations.

IMDb- this is pretty retarded that you require 10 lines for reviews. What if people have nothing more to say ? Please have your management review this requirement. You must lose lots of members due to this. Someone with a crazy idea shouldn't be allowed to sit on your board.

I read some reviews about Backlight and some of them are really bad. Bad in a way that they aren't argued enough. I think that all the people should have an opinion but the opinions must have facts and things with meaning. That's why I think that I have a few things to say... First of all, Backlight is a fantastic movie and If you have some doubts about what I said, please, watch the movie again and try to understand it. Watch a movie is not just see what is in the screen, is see something through the screen! A message to the world. Cinema is an art that send messages in a single way. Through sound, image and, the most important, a story. The soundtrack of Backlight is amazing. Please, listen with attention. Santos e Pecadores, Nuno Maló... You don't know them? Well sometimes its good, because I know some "artists" and I would prefer don't know them. The movie don't have special effects like Transformers or War of the Worlds? Yes, its a fact! But I have a very good explanation for that: Money! Please remember that Fernando Fragata is Portuguese and don't have so many sponsors like Spielberg. He made the movie with some help but, essentially alone. Yes, alone... Can you imagine what is make a movie in these conditions? OK, we all have difficulties in life. I just wrote this for you understand that, like Fernando Fragata said "I didn't make the movies that I would like, but I did the movies that were possible to me". You want throw a stone for that? Please, be my guest, but remember that a movie is much more than that. Art is about passion, feelings. The story of Backlight is really good! The way that all the things fit until the final apotheosis is brilliant! The meaning in the objects are so amazing. Don't have a meaning but, the beauty is that somethings in life don't have a meaning. You just feel... You just listen some voices that are saying to you to go ahead. Also the GPS story is a true story of a women that died in a car crash and the husband took the gps and went the last address. The last address was a orphanage. The women was infertile and was thinking in adopt a child. All the story of Backlight is about real stories that Fernando saw. Is not an empty story with no meaning. Is something with a little magic (the magic in the objects) that make us to believe in things like that. You don't need a good camera or be in amazing places to make a good movie, you just need to have passion! A good Story! To make people forget their lives or, maybe, thinking in life and in human condition. OK, I like special effects and good monsters and wars but, first of all, I like a good Story! A meaning. If you are looking for some crap with famous actors, amazing effects, no meaning, poorly argued and an empty story like a cliché, please don't see this. See a Hollywood crap. Otherwise if you are looking for a good movie, with so many passion, meaning and a brilliant story, well, then you must see Backlight.

Skipped through a few minutes of it. Looks like total boring crap. Hilarious fake reviews give it a 10. The script? Brilliant! The acting...excellent! Sure thing. Maybe actually make something good so the reviews don't need to be fake. Check it out if you still want to.