Mati (Lucie Lucas) is French; Jake (Anton Yelchin, in one of his posthumous appearances) is American. Randomly, they encounter each other in Porto, Portugal, and quickly fall in love. But very soon they must separate and resume their individual lives back home.
This 2016 effort from director Gabe Klinger and his co-writer Larry Gross draws obvious inspiration from Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise, but it changes the setting from Austria to Portugal and spices the narrative up sexually quite a bit, as well as employing a more literally classical aesthetic where Before Sunrise was reminiscent of the '90s indie and grunge movements. That was a wise approach, as it helps Klinger and Gross to make their film feel more independent and distinctive. Klinger also paces it insightfully and patiently, with his framing and photography choices very appropriate. Lucas and Yelchin (to whom the movie was dedicated) also show solid chemistry and each give understated, natural turns, and the soundtrack is simple yet haunting. Overall, Porto is an engaging and striking portrait of young, fleeting, international romance.
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