'Once Upon a Time, Veronica' is a bit dissolute and daffy

The movie is directed by Marcelo Gomes, who has a nice eye for semidocumentary detail.

“Once Upon a Time, Veronica,” directed by Marcelo Gomes with a nice eye for semidocumentary detail, is a cumbersome title for a Brazilian movie that is sensually languorous in the extreme.

Hermila Guedes is the very pretty Veronica, a newly anointed psychiatrist working in a public hospital in a shabby coastal town. She lives with her retired banker father (W.J. Solha) in a two-bedroom apartment and has a sometime boyfriend she cares little about except as a bedmate. Her father is ailing, her job is wearying, but, in true Brazilian fashion, there is always “carnival” to lift the spirits. It’s all a bit dissolute and daffy, but at least her prescription for happiness doesn’t come out of a bottle. Grade: B- (This film is unrated, but reviewers cite scenes of nudity and sexual situations.)