Susana Garcia’s My Best Friend is the latest light-hearted comedy in a string of Netflix releases, this time taking audiences on a chaotic trip across Europe with two longtime friends who find themselves in the most ridiculous of situations. Cultural misunderstandings, unexpected happenings and plenty of opportunities to embarrass themselves – it isn’t a complicated story, nor does it try to be. Instead, its charm comes from watching two women growing old together and enjoying each other’s company, even when things don’t go quite according to plan.
Faced with “empty-nest anxiety” and the threat of menopause, best friends Clara (Ingrid Guimarães) and Julia (Mônica Martelli) decide to take a trip to visit their daughters, who are doing an exchange program abroad. Their adventures takes them from Rio de Janeiro to Lisbon to Seville, sometimes with devastating consequences. Although the film is primarily aimed at women over forty, who might relate more directly to the characters and their experiences, the friendship at its centre is something that women of all ages can appreciate. After all, there is something rather universal about having that one friend with whom you can completely embarrass yourself with without worrying about being judged – it is here that lies the film’s greatest strength. Guimarães and Martelli are entertaining in their respective roles, mainly because they are allowed to be silly, make mistakes, and behave in ways that aren’t always expected of women their age. This also means that My Best Friend largely relies on inane comedy for laughs, something of an acquired taste – some instances are genuinely entertaining, while others feel a little too convenient, as though the script – penned in part by the two leads themselves – has gone out of its way to create an opportunity for another joke. At times, it becomes difficult to believe that events would actually unfold the way they do, even within the film’s already playful universe, and the humour ends up increasingly repetitive, relying on exaggerated misunderstandings that end up feeling forced.
There is also a distinctly Brazilian quality to much of the humour. Several jokes revolve around the linguistic differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese, particularly the way Brazilians misunderstand expressions used in Portugal. Others play with the confusion between Portuguese and Spanish, as the characters attempt to speak what they think is Spanish based on similar Portuguese words. These moments can be especially amusing for Brazilian Portuguese speakers, but though charming in theory, it is bound to get lost in translation, generating a slightly different experience for international audiences watching it dubbed or with subtitles.
Still, it would be unfair to judge My Best Friend as a sophisticated comedy when its appeal clearly lies in its simplicity. Offering up an easy, light-hearted watch and a little European holiday without leaving the couch, Julia and Clara remind us that friendship doesn’t have to become any less exciting with age. There is a genuine warmth beneath all the silliness – and that is easy to appreciate in any language.
My Best Friend is on Netflix now.
