Name: Someone Borrowed
Director: Cris D'Amato
Released: 2022-10-12T00:00:00

Netflix’s Someone Borrowed (Esposa de Aluguel) is a Brazillian romantic comedy that focuses on a stubborn bachelor named Luiz who stays away from serious relationships. However, when his dying mother threatens to cut him out of the will if he doesn’t get married, he hires an actress named Lina to be his fake partner.

Story

Someone Borrowed is set in São Paolo and follows Luiz, a handsome, unemployed bachelor who enjoys his life with a monthly allowance, thanks to his rich mother.

The list of women he has been involved with is long, but he runs away from love. Luiz follows certain rules to not let any of his relationships turn serious, but this comes to bite him eventually.

When his mom is declared terminal and given six months to live, she requests Luiz to get married as her final wish. When he disagrees, she threatens to stop his allowance and cut him out of his will.

This forces Luiz to hire Lina, a stage actress, to be his fake fiancé. The arrangement is the perfect one until legitimate feelings and a shocking twist change the picture.

Performances

Caio Castro plays Luiz and is quite ordinary in the role. There isn’t enough material in the script to let him show off his range. His character is just obsessed with women, having sex and not ending up in a situation with financial problems.

He does have a caring side for his mother, which is a nice addition to Luiz’s personality. However, there isn’t much more to analyse.

Thati Lopes as Lina is entertaining and exuberant, and her performance feels authentic. She presents Lina’s insecurities, conflicts, struggles and evolving feelings expertly. Despite Lina’s tendency to be extremely loud and outspoken, Lopes masks her true motives with ease.

Mariana Xavier plays the nosey sister Maria Inez, and she is probably one of the best characters in the film. She is the perfect infusion of antagonising energy in the plot and is required to do just one thing, make everything miserable for the protagonists, which she does brilliantly.

Positives

Someone Borrowed doesn’t take itself too seriously which is a positive for simple romantic plots. The narrative doesn’t linger on excessive melodrama nor does it try to preach the power of love.

This also means that the pacing is quite efficient and the film goes by pretty quickly. The tongue-in-cheek humour is nice and a lot of the jokes do land.

Negatives

The problem with Someone Borrowed is mostly its predictability and its unrealistic developments. It is evident that Luiz is going to fall in love with Lina by the end, but the way he transitions from a romance hater to a man in love feels very sudden.

The characters are not well-developed, and their backstories aren’t explored. It is hard to relate to them due to their superficial presence in the film.

There are a lot of inconsistencies within the plot as well. The whole story hinges on the fact that Luiz’s mom is dying. However, as the story progresses, the terminal diagnosis is not a problem at all.

His mom starts healing without explanation, and her condition is reduced to a joke. In addition, Maria Inez finds out the truth about the fake relationship but doesn’t reveal anything to anyone until the family reunion (which is months later).

That is so unlike how her character behaves in the film otherwise.

Verdict

Someone Borrowed does have the entertaining factor and is fun to watch once. However, its poor handling of the story and its characters is quite disappointing.