​Someone Borrowed Review: Cris D'Amato's latest film is a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy that has nothing exciting to offer

2/5

​Story:  ​​Luiz is a carefree bachelor, who does not believe in love or marriage. But when his mother reveals that she has only six months to live and that she will remove him from her will, if he does not get married soon, he hires an actress Lina to play his fiancee.

Review: A man who does not believe in marriage meets a woman and the duo pretend to be in a relationship to convince their parents, but their 'fake' relationship eventually leads them to find love in each other. This is the trope of most romantic comedies that have been churned out since time immemorial. And Director Cris D'Amato's Someone Borrowed (Esposa de Aluguel) treads the same path.

Here we have Luiz (Caio Castro), a carefree bachelor, who does not extend his date beyond three months, the phase when people start getting romantically involved with each other. The serial dater's love life hits a roadblock when his mother Carlota announces that she barely has six months to live and announces that she will remove Luiz from her will if he does not find someone soon. Now, Luiz has two tasks at hand - to find a job and then find a woman who would be ready to be in a fake relationship with him.

Enter Lina (Thati Lopes), a theatre actress and a performer who has had quite a lot of experience pretending to be someone's wife, which is also her bread and butter. Luiz and Lina strike a deal and Lina agrees to act as her fiancee for six months. But things go topsy-turvy after Luiz's mother reveals that her health is improving and that she might live longer after all. As their contract is about to come to an end and Luiz's mother is on her road to recovery, Lina and Luiz are in a complete state of fix. What's their next plan of action? Is there more than what meets the eye?

Someone Borrowed is a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy that we have seen a zillion times earlier. The only difference here is the language (Portuguese) and the culture (Brazil) in which it's filmed. Just like how most relationships in rom-coms begin with the lead characters who cannot see eye to eye in the beginning, finally realising that they could be their best friend.  We also see how Luiz changes himself into a better person after he meets Lina, and how a third wheel in their relationship eventually helps them discover the love they have for each other. The film doesn't offer anything novel that makes it worth a watch.

The characters, too, aren't really etched well. Like we never get to know why Lina is the way she is or her background. We don't empathise with Luiz either, whose character lacks any charishma and all we knew was that he was an irresponsible man with a lackadaisical attitude, who had no major dreams or ambitions of his own and lived off his mother. The chemistry between the lead characters works only to a certain extent. Their reunion scene after the major misunderstanding between the two, completely falls flat. The only character who was relatable was that of Carlota. Maria Inez, Luiz's sister, is hilarious in parts. The film is cheesy at times and funny at others, but it never comes across as a whole package and thus fails to deliver.

Verdict: An average film that brings nothing new to the table.