Hey, everyone. Capone in Chicago here with a look at a film you should not let slide under your radar if you live in a city big enough that there might actually be room for it on a single screen somewhere.

Oh, dude, this is one messed-up movie and maybe one of the best ever made about the nature of obsession and how sometimes it's possible to obsess over someone you've never met (and no, I'm not talking about Moriarty's unsavory scrap book of Betty White with the pages crusted together). The Portuguese TWO DRIFTERS is about two very lonely individuals whose lives cross thanks to their common interest in a dead man.

Rui (Nuno Gil) is a strapping young gay bartender whose lover, Pedro (Joao Carreira) is killed on their anniversary in a horrible car crash. Coincidentally, the stunning Odete (Ana Cristina de Oliveira) lives in the same apartment building where Pedro and his mother lived. Shortly after breaking up with her boyfriend, she spots the commotion going on around the building on the day of Pedro's viewing, and she decides to attend, even though she never knew him. At the viewing, Odete sees the desperately emotional Rui looking at his lover in his plain coffin, and something just...snaps in her mind. Shortly thereafter she begins spending her days at Pedro's grave believing herself to be pregnant with his baby.

Eventually, Odete takes her pregnancy story to Pedro's mother, who at first can't believe this it (it's never clear whether the mom knew Pedro was gay, but I'm guessing she did), but eventually becomes so excited at the prospect of having a grandchild, all reason leaves her. Odete sincerely believes her own story, which comes complete with a long, detailed history of their love affair and a hysterical pregnancy.

Meanwhile, Rui misses Pedro so much that he can't even look at photos of him, let only visit his grave. When he finally does so, he spots Odete there and confronts her. Although he knows her story is bogus, he still finds himself drawn to protect and comfort her. The film's final scenes of Rui and Odete...um...bonding are probably going to freak a few people out, but they are a strangely natural extension of everything that has come before. Odete is one of the most disturbed characters I've ever seen on film, but since she's only really a danger to herself (and her non-existent baby), she doesn't seem all that crazy. The fact that the actress playing her is so devastatingly gorgeous makes her insanity seems all the more tragic (yes, I said it!).

Director Joao Pedro Rodrigues' last film, O FANTASMA, was also a disturbing psychosexual drama, but it existed in a world of violence and chaos. With only a handful of characters in TWO DRIFTERS, intimacy is the key ingredient in making this film far more gripping and troubling. By filling his movie with attractive actors in such unsettling situations, Rodrigues has made a minor masterpiece exploring the nature and extent some people will go to to make a connection in a world that seems to be dismissing them at every turn. TWO DRIFTERS is mesmerizing, haunting, and unforgettable.

Capone