A chance meeting with an American investor gets her thinking about leaving her lucrative employment and opening her own wine bar: no beers, no cocktails, just wines, preferably Brazilian natural wines. It's a plan that can't fail because everybody loves wine, right? ...Right?
In Porto, Klinger showed he has a knack for presenting the locations in his films as living, breathing environments. He manages this again, in this case with the Brazilian city of São Paulo. For the film's entire running time you feel as if you're there with the main characters, no mean feat as I have never been in São Paulo and therefore cannot judge whether he is accurate or not. But what's happening in this environment is a rather unsurprising drama. Most of the characters in it are likeable or at least you can relate with them, but their faults are obvious and it makes the proceedings predictable. When in Isabel the film, Isabel the character hits the brick wall of reality, you wonder how she'll deal with it. Brimming with jealousy towards more successful peers and convinced she has the right to more fulfilment in her life, the decisions she makes are sometimes so clearly wrong, so manipulative or damaging to others, that she lost me as the audience, and wondered why I should care about what happens to her afterwards.
But there is plenty to see and enjoy, the acting is good and believable, and at a mere 85 minutes the film never drags. Scriptwriter Marina Person (a producer and director herself) plays Isabel, her first main role as an actress but she makes it look easy. I felt transported to South America for a while, and even though I know nothing about wine (and am still none the wiser), I do know a thing or two about collecting and having unrealistic dreams. I did not love it, but I sure liked it.
Isabel was shown at the Film by the Sea festival in Vlissingen.