‘Sergio': Biopic of Heroic U.N. Diplomat Fails to Inspire [Review]

Sometimes a well-intentioned film, no matter how much you respect it, can fall flat on its derriere. Case in point, director Greg Barker’s “Sergio,” which deals with real-life figure Sérgio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. diplomat from Brazil who’s passionate humanitarian efforts around the world ended with his untimely death during the 2003 terrorist bombing of the Canal Hotel in Iraq.

Vieira de Mello (eloquently played by Wagner Moura) was sent to Iraq in 2003 as the Special Representative of the U.N. Secretary-General. The mission? To help the country move forward after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Easier said than done, especially when you have the U.S. constantly on your back, putting pressure at every turn, specifically Paul Bremer (Bradley Whitford), who lead the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) following the invasion. Bremer and de Mello didn’t agree on much, the former unintentionally creating more chaos in the region by disbanding more than 400,000 soldiers in the official Iraqi army.

The film doesn’t just cover de Mello’s time in Iraq, but also his humanitarian travels to Cambodia and, particularly, East Timor, where he assisted in developing the country’s independence from Indonesia. It’s in Asia where the married Sergio falls for Argentinian Italian U.N. economic adviser Carolina Larriera (Ana de Armas). The mutual attraction is immediate, but the film barely tackles the fact that de Mello had a wife and kids back home when he decided to shag with Larriera.

Barker’s film, a political-romance with screenwriting redundancies no director could fix, fails whenever it concentrates on Sergio’s love affair with Larriera and half-succeeds when it tackles de Mello’s humanitarian work. The back-and-forth timelines, Baker continuously juggles Iraq, Indonesia, and the 2003 bombing, ends up being a distracting and unnecessary gimmick. The film ends up unable to find an identity amidst the collage, its old-school tropes and well-intentioned politics marred by messy editing.

“Sergio’s” intentions might be pure, with Moura finding some kind of gravitas within his poorly written role, but this misguided attempt at honoring a heroic real-life figure just doesn’t cut it. Barker’s informative and enveloping 2009 HBO doc (also titled “Sergio”) is a better place to start if you want to get a better understanding of the man. [C]

“Sergio” is now streaming on Netflix