The Reel Review
Armando, a former college professor, tech expert and widower trying to dodge the military dictatorship in late 1970s Brazil, moves back to his hometown of Recife, only to discover that a high-ranking businessman has hired assassins to kill him. Wagner Moura (Civil War) stars in this period political thriller.
Impressively detailed art direction and vivid cinematography are the best parts of this film from writer/director Kleber Mendonça Filho. His slow, meandering story, about his nation’s lawless authoritarian past, languishes until the second half of its exhausting two-hour-and-41-minute runtime. There is an anything goes type of vibe throughout the country, thanks to an utterly corrupt and incompetent government and police force. (Sound familiar?) Without explaining it, the film clunkily incorporates both flash forwards of two modern day female researchers listening to audio tapes of Roberto’s decades-old conversations with members of the resistance who try to help him flee the country, and later in the story, flashbacks of why these goons want Armando dead.
The tone of the story is slow and scattered, featuring a cat with two faces (presumably a bad omen) and in a goofy, distracting throwback to a local urban legend about a severed leg terrorizing gay men and straight couples engaging in late night sex in one of the city’s public parks. The inclusion of that at the expense of some key moments in the story is bizarre. The film also features an unnecessary and confusing gimmick with Moura also playing the adult version of his son in the final scene. The Secret Agent has a few haunting moments, but pales in comparison to the similarly-themed I’m Still Here, Brazil’s 2025 Oscar winner for Best International Film,
REEL FACTS
• Wagner Moura won Best Actor for The Secret Agent at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the first Brazilian man to win a top acting prize.
• The Secret Agent was German character actor Udo Kier’s final film role. He died in Palm Springs, California in November 2025 at the age of 81.
• Just as government institutions were required during that time period, photographs of then Brazilian President and military dictator Ernesto Geisel appear throughout the film, illustrating the authoritarian government’s stifling presence.
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