“What do you mean, don’t go to the bathroom?”

In the film, The Man in the Box Joao William (Luis Alberto Pereira) is a technician who works for a Brazilian television station. He’s repairing wiring during a lightning storm when he suffers an electric shock. He’s stunned for a few minutes, but revives, and goes home for the day. Somehow, the accident causes William to appear on television 24/7.

Once you get over the impossibility of the situation, this sly Brazilian comedy film shows what happens when one unprepossessing individual takes over the networks single-handedly. William, is at first, blissfully unaware that every little thing he does is viewed by millions of Brazilians. The next thing William does after being electrocuted, is to meet and kiss his mistress–to the horror of his wife who’s watching it all on television. By the time he gets home, she has her bags packed ready to leave.

As William’s life continues to be viewed on Brazilian television, moral crusaders protest about William going to the toilet and having sex on air. With no privacy, William becomes desperate–then gets creative. William’s hogging of the airways begins to have serious consequences. Advertisers can no longer hawk their products, and Brazil is scheduled to play the World Cup. Now that William’s life is playing on every station, no one can watch the game. Brazilians react in a number of ways–trashing their televisions, sinking into despair, harassing William to get off of the networks, etc. But the situation is beyond William’s control.

The first half of the film is very clever, witty and original. My favourite scene occurs when William’s daughter tries to make sense of it all and talks to the television. After the halfway point, however, the script hits a brick wall. While it’s interesting to speculate what will happen when Brazilians can’t watch the World Cup, the film fizzles. The Man in the Box is in Portuguese with yellow subtitles in English.