Someone Borrowed Parent Guide

Luiz (Caio Castro) is a career bachelor with strict rules about never dating a woman for longer than three months, lest things get too serious. But when his mother (Patricya Travassos) finds out she only has six months to live, she threatens to take Luiz out of her will if he doesn’t find himself a wife. Afraid of being cut off financially, Luiz hires an actress to pretend to be his girlfriend for six months, just until his mom is gone. What he didn’t bargain for is Lina (Thati Lopes), a fiery and independent woman who sees right through Luiz’s games.

If you’ve ever seen a rom-com, you can probably guess the plot of Someone Borrowed. The storyline is exactly what you expect it to be, as are the characters. There are no real surprises or original ideas here. That said, it’s still well done. The production values are high, as is the caliber of the acting. The writing, through unoriginal, is perfectly serviceable and there are some fun side characters to keep the audience entertained.

Lina is a really fun character and leading romantic interest, always being unapologetically herself and pushing Luiz to be a better version of himself. Luiz, though great to look at, is a rather boring character and he lacks chemistry with Lina, which takes some of the fun out of the love story. The overall message of the film is that love should make you want to be a better person and help you be the person you want to be. This is a great message for a rom-com and Lina and Luiz’s relationship is healthy and respectful, an unfortunately rare quality in these films.

This Brazilian romantic comedy is geared at adults and I wouldn’t recommend it for children. There’s a fair amount of discussion about sex, some swearing, and social drinking and smoking, though much less than I had expected for the genre. If you don’t mind a bit of negative content and have a love of rom-coms, Someone Borrowed is okay if not outstanding. At the very least, Caio Castro is really nice to look at so I won’t judge if you watch just for that!