The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student, a Brazilian comedy, is now out on Netflix. Directed by Bruno Garotti, he wrote the film along with Sylvio Gonçalves. The film stars Larissa Manoela, Thati Lopes, Bruno Montaleone, David Sherod, and Kathy-Ann Hart. The one hour 36 minutes film is in Portuguese and has English subtitles.
The synopsis for the film reads – Looking to shake things up, two best friends embark on a life-changing adventure abroad as exchange students. But can they stay out of trouble?
– The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student Review contains mild spoilers –
Netflix’s The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student begins with Barbara (Larissa Manoela) telling us that it’s her dream to travel the world. To make her dream come true, she even took a job at the airport but works as a travel magazine seller. Barbara is a flight attendant, but only when she achieves her target, she’ll get a chance to fly on the plane.
We also meet Barbara’s best friend Taila, who also works at the airport as a taxi service provider. Taila hates America and believes that they don’t want Brazil to flourish. One day, Barbara meets Brad (David Sherod) at the airport, who’s from New York. After spending time with him, she decides to go to the US.
After her visa is denied, Barbara and Taila plan to go to the US as exchange students. Both the girls get different houses as they arrive in NY city and believe their dreams are coming true. But life doesn’t go the way they plan, and a lot of drama happens in both the ladies’ lives. I’m okay with drama in life, but why does it have to revolve around boys when two girls are just living the dream?
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The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student Netflix film starts off on an amusing note, and you immediately get invested in Barbara’s life. You are happy to see the girls arriving in the US and getting excited like kids when they see real snow and yellow school buses. I know that I’ll have a similar reaction when I see things I’ve seen only in movies. But the narrative gets messed up with the romance angle and the twist in the end.
Barbara kept talking so much about her dream to travel the world that I thought I’ll see her travelling and falling in love with new places. Instead, the makers took the typical approach and added boyfriend and boyfriend-best friend issues. If that wasn’t enough, there’s a ridiculous twist in the end. The makers might’ve thought it would shock the viewers, but it was a big facepalm moment.
Larissa Manoela plays the lively and overexcited Barbara perfectly. I really enjoyed Thati Lopes’ Taila character, but I wish they would’ve written a better story for her. The rest of The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student play their part well.
The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, the latest Netflix film teases you travel dreams initially, but it gets lost halfway. I really wanted to like the film as the tone is cheerful. But the narrative is all over the place, and the makers seemed to have rushed to give an absurd conclusion. I would really like to say this to most filmmakers – if you are making a film about girls’ dreams, please don’t add boy drama to it. For once, let girls just have fun by themselves without sorting the lives of men!
The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student is now streaming on Netflix.
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