Modo Avião: A coming-of-age with a boring, but cute, romance.
Airplane Mode (2020), or Modo Avião, is a Brazilian coming-of-age film made by Netflix. It follows Ana, a social media influencer who's way too obsessed with her phone. When she gets in multiple car accidents in one day and ends up in the hospital, her parents have had enough. They tell her the court has ordered for her phone to be taken away, and that she will to stay with her grandfather, who she hasn't seen in years, in the countryside to get rid of this phone addiction. Of course, a real court would never do this and it's all made up by her parents, but Ana isn't bright enough to realise this and travels to go live with her grandfather. She treats her trip as simply a vacation, but her grandfather makes her help him with his car, and soon enough Ana makes meaningful connections and realises what it means to be a good person, sort of.
Their story
Ana and João meet for the first time when Ana gets off the bus in her grandfather's hometown and she sees João's little sister playing a game on her phone. Ana obviously has had her phone taken away, so she asks the girl to use her phone. When she refuses, Ana decides to "borrow it anyway" and fights her for the phone. João and his other sister Rebeca intervene, and, upon learning she's the granddaughter of Germano, offers her a ride to his house.
When Ana arrives at her grandfather's, she discovers the house does not have toilet paper, only bidets. Ana has no clue how to use these, so she walks to back to the town center to buy some toilet paper. She gets there long after stores have closed, but the small grocery store's door is unlocked, so she goes in and takes some toilet paper. While writing a note that she'll come back later to pay for it, she knocks some stuff over and the owners come rushing in in their pyjamas. It's João, his sisters and his mother. He tells their mother they know her and that he'll deal with it. Ana explains the situation, and João lets her take the toilet paper and, again, offers her a ride home.
During Ana's stay, she crosses paths with João multiple times. He comes by to help her grandfather with his car, they go to his store, and eventually they go for a picnic together. Their affection for each other is very clear, mainly because João stares at her with the largest puppy dog eyes, like it's his first time ever being in love and Ana is a goddess come to life (I wish a man would look at me like that).
The annual festival is back in town and Ana and João attend together. They share their first kiss here, but while they're having a good time later on, she's recognized by a fan, who tells her that her ex boyfriend Gil, who broke up with her right before she got in the car crash that landed her in the hospital, is dating someone new. A girl who has essentially stolen the place Ana was supposed to have as the face of the fashion brand they were signed to. Ana flips out, and when she calms down she stumbles upon an advertisement with a familiar man on it. It's the same man her parents hired to pretend to be someone from the courts who came to take her phone away. When João reveals he knew about it as well and kept it from her, she runs away, back towards the city and her old life.
Before, in her grandfather's house, Ana discovered her late grandmother was a fashion designer, which Ana has a degree in. She decided to rework her grandmother's clothing into her own designs, but when her former employers from the fashion brand came to visit her, they stole all her designs. Months after Ana has returned home, her family discovers this and notifies Ana. Together, they go to the show of the stolen collection and expose Ana's former employers for the thieves they are. Here, Ana decides not to be angry anymore and embrace the people she loves. She finally gets together with João, who is now in culinary school because Ana had told him to go for it. He was reluctant, since he felt his family needed him at home, but with Ana's encouragement he followed his dreams after all.
And they lived happily ever after, probably. Ana has a boyfriend who isn't superficial, her family has reunited with her grandfather and she's gotten her thieves of a former employers arrested.
My thoughts
This was a very cute movie to watch, but I was not feeling this resolution to the "third act breakup" at all. Ana is rightfully very upset that everyone she's come to care about has been lying to her. She feels incredibly stupid, as if everyone has been laughing at her, which is understandable. Running back to the city and her old life felt like a drastic move, especially after all she's learned, but I also thought that by the time she kissed João at the festival she wouldn't have cared whether or not her ex boyfriend was kissing someone else, but she was incredibly upset about it, and I'm surprised João was not at all upset at the fact that she clearly was not over this guy. You could say her reaction was more about that having been her spot, her dream. But the movie didn't frame it that way, in my opinion.
When Ana returns to band together and expose her former employers, it's like suddenly everything is good again. There is no meaningful conversation, no real resolution, she just kind of forgives them. I feel like this movie could have given so much more, but that's not really what Netflix makes anymore, is it? The quality has gone down hard on the romances, comedies and dramas they make, and it's such a shame, because you just know they can do better.
The villains in this, Ana's former employers, are also very cartoon-ish. I guess everyone in this movie is, but especially with antagonists it gets a little jarring for me. But I guess that is a personal preference.
Would I recommend?
In the end, I'd say that if you're in for a fun, feel-good movie, then yes, definitely watch this. It's cute, it's entertaining, and João is incredibly dreamy. But is this a "you must watch this coming of age film, it's so good"? No, absolutely not.
Tier list position
Listen, this movie definitely had me giggling about João's puppy dog face, but I'm still going to put it in "One-Time Watch". I'm leaning towards "Deniable Chemistry", because there wasn't much of it, but then that also wasn't really the point?
