Rich in Love (2020)

Rich in Love arrives from Brazil with the confidence of a film that knows exactly what it is and has no intention of apologizing for it. Teto, heir to a tomato empire, poses as a man of modest means to win the heart of Paula, a medical student with a stethoscope and a spine. The premise is as old as comedy itself, the prince among the peasants, and director Bruno Garotti executes it with the brisk efficiency of someone who has studied the genre's blueprints and sees no reason to deviate. The lies multiply. The truths arrive on schedule. Nobody involved appears to be reaching for anything grander than a pleasant evening, which is, in its own modest way, an honest ambition.

On the matter of social consciousness, the film is temperate to the point of timidity. The cast includes Black Brazilian performers in supporting roles, though they occupy their positions without the screenplay ever pausing to remark upon it, which is either admirable restraint or simple disinterest depending on one's mood. Paula possesses independence and professional ambition, but the narrative treats these as personality traits instead of theses to be defended. Class friction between the tomato fortune and the working student flickers across the surface, then dissolves into a reconciliation that leaves the inheritance intact and the hierarchy undisturbed. There is no lecture here, no sermon, no moment where the audience is invited to examine its own complicity in anything. The film wants to be liked, and it pursues that goal with a single-mindedness that borders on the admirable.

The result is a romantic comedy that will offend no one and electrify no one, a competent confection with a sequel already waiting in the wings. We are left with the distinct impression of a film that has read the cultural moment and decided, politely, to sit this one out.