The Trespasser

Amorality has insidious power, like a truck with no brakes. Checks, such as guilt and loyalty, don't exist.

When Anisio is hired by two directors of a Sao Paulo construction firm to eliminate a third, he doesn't do the business, take the money and run. He moves in on the firm, creates a job for himself and starts throwing his weight around. To add insult to injury, he seduces the teenage daughter (Mariana Ximenes) of his victim and flaunts her as a trophy girlfriend amongst his lowlife associates.

Taking this explosive plot, based on a novel by Marcal Aquino, director Beto Brant shoots on digital video, giving the film a grainy contemporary look, complete with pulsing hiphop soundtrack. The editing is brutal and the flashbacks confusing. In his desire to avoid the slickness of a Hollywood production, he goes too far the other way.

Anisio's character is cleverly drawn and superbly played by Paulo Miklos, assuming the dangerous stance of a killer without conscience, whose grasp on reality is tenuous. Ivan (Marco Ricca), the accountant and fellow plotter, is the exact opposite. He agonises over every decision, allows himself to be bullied by Giba (Alexandre Borges) and falls apart under the weight of the crime they have committed.

Paranoia eats through layers of subterfuge, leaving Giba jittery and Ivan in pieces, opening the door to a psychotic chancer like Anisio to exploit to the fullest extent of his intellect - not much further than a line of coke and stoned sex in a fancy car.

The roughcut, handheld style of the movie undermines its potential as a psychological thriller. Too many scenes in clubs, where the images blur into each other, become tedious. Ivan's anguish is lost between recognising the extent of the spirit's corruption and working out which woman in his bed is his wife.