Strong and Moving!

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

A gentle movie about relationships between three women. (Yes, I say three women as Mary lived with Bishop and Lota until the latter die.) And as every human relationship it is permeated with high, low and ... drama moments. When it comes to women it seems that directors never forget the drama. Blend together alcoholism, passion, money and drama and you have a genuine, feasible film, if based on true events.It feels that the characters lack in depth a little bit, but in this movie that was a good thing to me since the movie did not intend to replicate accurately the events (hence it is not possible to truly know what happened) . Therefore, t is up to the viewer to infer the finest nuances of those people based on the most general outlines shown in the film.It is a film to be savored and reflected as the years pass by within the plot.

the only main reason to watch this film & like it you have to lower your expectations its a nice film it is a half fiction half biopic on real life American poet & Brazilian architect there is a lesbian relationship shown here but no sex scene its just some kissing scene involved its too slow & long for anyone to like it but i id.the plot:the story revolves around an American poet Elizabeth Bishop & Lota De Macedo Soares during the building of Brazilian capital Brasilia around 1951 & 1967.the cast;everyone did nice acting specially the leading ladies they tried there best like they have done this before everything was so easy for them.overall i liked it for what it was you will to just forget the critics they lie its a good film overall Reaching For The Moon 2013 deserves a one time watch at least my rating is 5/10.

I enjoyed this story of a lengthy midlife love affair, "based on" (that is, "not cemented to the known facts of") real women of some mid-century renown. One, American poet Elizabeth Bishop, is quiet, slow to warm to strangers or share working drafts of her poems. See if Miranda Otto doesn't remind you of Deborah Kerr in her memorable 1940s and '50s roles (and clothes). In Brazil to visit an old college friend, Elizabeth meets Lota de Macedo Soares, a charismatic commander of attention and glamorously trousered architect. They become lovers and make their life in Brazil. All the characters, including a close male friend of Lota's and one of Elizabeth's, are revelations in the best sense: mature but unfinished adults, they meet their circumstances over nearly 20 years in ways not even they might be able to predict. Mark Twain said that fiction is obliged to meet our expectations but the truth isn't. Central Casting can provide "types," but history offers people like nobody else, which is why you'll find discussions here and elsewhere complaining that these lesbians were not put through their proper lesbian plot paces! The drunks were sometimes sober! People got depressed without enough foreshadowing! Ignore all that. This is a good quiet story, mostly but not all sad, about people learning themselves as they go, living genuinely if not always bravely. And anyone who's ever dreamed of having a writer's sanctuary will fall rapturously in love with the al fresco study Lota builds for Elizabeth. Must be seen to be appreciated!

Elizabeth Bishop and her lover Lota de Macedo Soares must have had a pretty rocky relationship—Lota ended up killing herself—but you'd never know it from this very prim and proper biopic. The filmmakers tone down any elements that might disturb or challenge a target audience looking not for historical accuracy (or even good drama) but rather for inspiring role models. So Bishop and de Macedo Soares are shown as two strong, successful, and loving women who never let little problems like raging alcoholism, rampant ruling-class careerism, or crushing egomania get them down, until the final reel, when the whole movie comes off the rails.Consider the scene where Elizabeth bakes a birthday cake for her beloved, who stands her up. What happens when self-obsessed Lota finally shows up, only to find Elizabeth sleeping off a bender? "Oh, you so hurt my feelings!" "Oh, so sorry, lovey-poo!" A little kissy-kissy and it's all better. Sorry, I ain't buying it. How much closer to the truth (not to mention more interesting, and believable) if this scene had erupted in a screaming row a la "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?", with the bitter, alcoholic American vs. the brazen Brazil nut. Alas, that would never do in a movie that's all about role models, not real people who really lived, and really ended up in mental hospitals and really committed suicide.When Lota does go certifiably crazy, this development seems to come from nowhere, since we haven't been shown a clue that anything was wrong with her or her perfect world. In real life, there's always a telltale breadcrumb trail leading to the nervous breakdown, but not in this movie. Lota just all of a sudden goes crazy. Go figure.Despite its glossy veneer, this is a deeply phony movie, a deceptive testament to a poet and an architect who both deserve to be more realistically portrayed on the screen. Maybe someday we'll see a competent documentary about these two women, their achievements, and their complex relationship, instead of this beautifully shot, polite and pandering excuse for a biopic.