Genre Romance

The Day I Met You (2023)

Item: The Day I Met You
Author: Ross McLaren

Some entries in the every-country challenge defeat me before I have even begun, and The Day I Met You is one of them. I searched everywhere for a version with English subtitles, every corner of the internet I could think of, and came up empty every single time. My Portuguese runs to about a dozen words, so in the end I watched it leaning on a translation app, catching the rough shape of scenes rather than their detail, guessing at the meaning behind faces I could read but words I could not. That is no way to meet a film properly, and I know it.

So I am not going to pretend to a verdict I have not earned. It would be a disservice to the film, and dishonest to you, to slap a confident rating on something I could only half follow. I could tell you it was good or bad and you would have no way of knowing I was bluffing, and that is exactly the kind of hollow, going-through-the-motions review I never want to write. Better to be straight about it.

What I can say is that even through that fog, I felt the shape of something I would like. The rhythm of it, the unforced naturalism of the faces, the patience it showed in its quiet moments, all of it suggested a film I would warm to properly if I could ever meet it on level terms. There was a gentleness to it that survived even my terrible, app-assisted comprehension.

If a copy with English subtitles ever surfaces, and I will keep looking, I will come back, watch it as it deserves to be watched, and give it the honest, full write-up it is owed. For now, consider this a placeholder and an admission, because sometimes the barrier is not the film at all, it is simply getting to it. Unrated, and filed under unfinished business.

Rating: Not rated | Year: 2023 | Watched: 2026-04-03

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The Day I Met You (2023)

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American Beauty (1999)

The Spiral Staircase (1946)

The Babadook (2014)

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