360 (Fernando Meirelles, 2011)

Meirelles really made his mark on the international stage with 2002's City of God, which managed the juggling act of being both politically excoriating and riveting as a thriller at the same time without compromising either element. Since then, however, it has not been plain sailing and 360 illustrates quite succinctly what happens when a director gets too much adulation: a host of stars from Law to Hopkins come in to prop up a story that doesn't quite deserve it.
Modishly, we're in globe-trotting  territory from the outset, with the action jumping between disparate characters and cities, whose paths cross from time to time but who are all related by one theme: awkward relationships. So, there's the pragmatic Slovakian prostitute, the businessman with the faltering marriage, a dentist infatuated with his assistant, a father refusing to accept the disappearance of his daughter decades earlier and a sex offender trying hard to stay on the straight and narrow after being released from prison. All of these vignettes promise, and occasional also deliver, something of substance. But a lot of what is produced by the characters' interactions is smothered in platitudes and it's perhaps quite indicative of the grasp of a director, now distanced from his roots, on what really matters or what happens in the real world that so much of it takes place in the vacuum of airports and hotels.

5/10