The Secret Agent – Monday 2nd March 2026

I was really looking forward to this film; I like serious movies set in the world of espionage, especially ones that aren’t from the perspective of the US or the UK (which is what we usually see). Wagna Moura is always good to watch too.

What a disappointment this film was.

Honestly, I don’t even know what I just watched, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t about a ‘secret agent’ and definitely wasn’t about the world of espionage!

I have absolutely no knowledge regarding Brazil in the 1970s; I don’t know what the political climate was like, who the leader was, etc, etc. And as an audience member when watching a movie, I shouldn’t really need any prior knowledge; the movie should tell me everything I need to know. Whilst watching this film, I felt like some knowledge of Brazil in the 1970s would have been useful, just to make sense of what the hell was happening!

Seriously, I appreciate it when films don’t spoon-feed you everything, but this film didn’t give you enough, which is frustrating to say the least!

After having seen it, I’m still none the wiser when it comes to what happened to the protagonist’s wife, why exactly he’s in hiding, and what the point of the film was? 

The way the protagonist’s journey ends, is SO dissatisfying! (Spoiler) Literally just cutting to photo in a newspaper showing his dead body! How can the filmmakers rob the audience of such a pivotal moment?! Like every other major event the film discusses, we don’t see how it happened! We’re denied all the ‘juicy’ parts of the story, and instead, shown all the mundane parts! That’s not why we watch movies! It’s just poor storytelling.

To add insult to injury, the whole thing is overly long! The film is set in the 1970s, but then, for no reason, halfway through, it cuts to the present day, showing us some University students researching the story we’re watching. That device adds literally nothing to the story, other than breaking the flow, and giving us an epilogue which again, provides us with no answers.

The film was beautifully shot, and the period is brilliantly realized; it all looks completely authentic. But all those efforts are wasted on a film that deliberately creates a puzzle, but provides no satisfying solution. Sure, life may be that way, but one of the reasons we watch movies is so we can make sense of life, not to be further confused by it!

‘Disappointing’ is the perfect word to describe this film, more so because it was actually engaging, despite everything I’ve said! The characters were really well-defined, and seemed real (I have no idea if this is based on a true story, but it gives the impression that it could be). There were also some great cinematic sequences, but it’s all for nothing if the story leaves you baffled.

Man, this film could have been great! It had all the ingredients, but in the end, it was just half-baked.

SO disappointing!