Porto(2017)

Plot Summary

• The movie takes place in Porto, a city in northern Portugal. There are a lot of flash forwards and flashbacks that the viewer needs to piece together. It starts with Jake (Anton Yelchin) and Mati (Lucie Lucas) staring happily into each other's eyes. Next, we see an earlier scene where Jake is alone in Café Ceuta and is looking like death warmed over. He waits in the café with just his dog. His loneliness and emptiness are searing. Act I: Jake's viewpoint: Next, we see Jake walk by Café Ceuta, where he appears to want to recapture better times. He briefly flashes back to the better times - a conversation with Mati. She is beautiful. He is enamored. She is a 32-year-old Classics student from Paris and he is a plain, honest 26-year-old guy who is used to taking any work that he can get, barely gets by, doesn't take care of himself or have any meaningful social life. We learn that Mati came to Porto with her professor who is interested in having Mati become the mother of his children, although she points out that freedom is important to her. Jake responds, "I totally get that". The connection appears to be strong. It is briefly shown that they later had a night in bed together. The next day, Jake wakes up from a bed on the floor and notices a kind note to help himself to any food. We later see him unpacking moving boxes and setting up Mati's furniture. Mati returns, not expecting to see Jake still there, as she enters her apartment with her professor as well. After some awkwardness, the professor prepares a tapas dinner. The professor asks how the two know each other, but no response is given. He next asks what Jake does. Mati volunteers that "Jake works at the dig site", where Mati's class visited. Awkward conversation proceeds and this scene wraps up. Next, we see Jake repeatedly trying to call Mati as he waits outside her apartment. One can feel the frustration, as if that is the only thing in the world, and his whole life depends on that. Finally, he sees her exit from her apartment, and she invites him back into the apartment but Mati is sad. Jake says, "I don't understand. You're like a different person". He states that he really misses her, and it is clear his frustration has not left but is growing. Next, we see Jake is detained in a police office, but is getting released. The officer says Jake should not go back to see Mati. This ends the act from Jakes viewpoint. Act II: Mati's viewpoint: Flash forwards show that Mati and the professor got married, had a baby. The girl grows up and is assiduously practicing violin. Mati says, "Take a break". Then the professor arrives at the door. Mati says, "You should have called." The professor brings a gift for Mati and for their daughter, Madeleine. Mati and the professor are not friendly. She is more uncomfortable with the visit than she is. The professor spends the remaining time with only Madeleine. This act shifts back in time to the first time Mati had seen Jake. She was taking notes at the archeological dig site and had seen Jake moving wheelbarrows of dirty around. She later follows him to the train station, where he notices her again. Flashes show that Mati also longs for the night of the café. The scene shows more of what had transpired as Mati got to know Jake at the café. Jake's father had been in the diplomatic service and had moved the family to Portugal when Jake was in high school. Jake's older sister fell in love with a Portuguese man, which caused strife in the family, and she chose to remain in Portugal. Jake chose to remain on his own in Portugal. He takes any job he can get in order to support himself. Jake sees Mati as having a fortunate and interesting life. Mati reveals that she was sick, was crazy as sometimes "you know what you must do, but you know it is impossible to do". Jake asks how did she escape? And she says, "I didn't exactly escape." Act III: Mati and Jake We learn more details of the café evening. Jake met at the café by chance. He sat alone at a table at one side of the café and noticed Mati was already seated alone at the opposite side of the café facing toward him. He walked up and that was their first time talking to one another. Mati was very inviting, and the meeting was intense. Mati suggested they go somewhere else. Jake was nearly hypnotized. She kissed him and they walked a long way to her car. Mati said she had recently moved to a new apartment and needed help with boxes. There were 5 boxes. Jake carried a large heavy box what seemed to be at least a mile. The volume of Jake's box was about 20X the volume of Mati's so she can smoke while he struggles. Jake goes back 4 more times to finish getting all her boxes while Mati relaxes inside the apartment. After finishing with all the box trips, Jake says he is almost dead with exhaustion, but Mati says, "I didn't kill you yet" with a suggestive look. Jake finds energy for deeply passionate intercourse. Marti thoroughly enjoys it, saying, "I never came like that ... so fast". Jake responds, "Can you get me to come like that?" Now, Mati finds the energy to fulfill that. Jake gets everything he hoped for that night, perhaps more. Jake discusses his thoughts of how "This is happening to us", "It doesn't feel like we have a choice even if we wanted to stop it". Jake said, "I love you", and Mati said, "I love you". They discussed how they could never lie to each other. We see how, at dawn, they finally get back to Mati's apartment and slept after the miraculous evening. Jake clearly had a totally life-changing experience that night. Mati enjoyed it and is still enjoying it, but one gets the sense she has gone along and did not have a totally life-changing experience. We see how she woke up earlier than Jake and got dressed and left the note. We see how Mati came back with food, and we now see what led to the opening scene of why Jake and Mati were smiling and staring into each other's eyes. Clearly the last scene is the high note, but we know that a life-changing experience is not always the one we may wish for. It may be an experience that we long for the rest of our lives and can never recapture. This unfortunately, seems to be the case and probably has left Jake worse off than he would have been had he never met Mati. It may be that after 15 years Mati and Jake get back together, or it may be that they never do. That is left for the viewer to consider.

Storyline

• Jake (Yelchin) and Mati (Lucas) are two outsiders in the northerly Portuguese city of Porto who once experienced a brief connection. A mystery remains about the moments they shared, and in searching through memories, they relive the depths of a night uninhibited by the consequences of time.