Faithful to the original theatrical play "Frei Luís de Sousa" by Almeida Garrett, the production is accurate to XVI century Portugal. Especially noteworthy are the costumes and settings.
The acting suffers from being over-theatrical. Even making allowances for the über-tragedy that is "Frei Luís de Sousa", the actors fall into every vice learned at the theater and seem to forget that they changed the medium to film.
With way too much "ooooooh, misfortune!, oooooooooooooh, the tragedy!, ooooooooooooooooh", this ends up being just an overacted filmed play. That being said, it is still worth it for history and classic theater buffs.
The acting suffers from being over-theatrical. Even making allowances for the über-tragedy that is "Frei Luís de Sousa", the actors fall into every vice learned at the theater and seem to forget that they changed the medium to film.
With way too much "ooooooh, misfortune!, oooooooooooooh, the tragedy!, ooooooooooooooooh", this ends up being just an overacted filmed play. That being said, it is still worth it for history and classic theater buffs.