Eduardo (José Condessa), Rafael(Rodrigo Tomás), Silvia(Helena Caldeira), and Carlinhos(André Leitão) are four friends feeling trapped in their poor fishing village on a small island in the Azores. But when a shipment of cocaine washes up on the shores of their home, they see it as a way to escape their dreary existence and make a better life for themselves in America. That is, of course, unless the local drug boss, law enforcement, and the rightful owners of the 60 million euros worth of coke they now possess have anything to say about it in Turn of the Tide, a thriller from Portugal directed by Augusto Fraga and Patrícia Sequeira, with writing by Augusto Fraga, Hugo Gonçalves, and João Tordo.
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They say most crimes are born out of desperation. That they come from people who are so desperate to escape the struggles and hassles of their current lives that the risks that come with a criminal lifestyle appear worth it. For the four friends that stand at the center of Turn of the Tide‘s narrative, it is, at least at first. After all, if there is one thing life is good at, it’s proving to us that no matter how bad you think your life is, it can always get worse.
The best aspect of Turn of the Tide is how perfectly it manages to balance the core cast’s moral alignment. Over the course of the show’s seven episodes, the primary four characters make a number of bad choices, either morally or intellectually, while managing to never stray so far into the bad spectrum that they start to feel like complete villains. Their questionable choices rarely feel like they are bad from an active desire to hurt or wrong others, except in the case of the other illegal elements involved in the story, which helps them mostly remain protagonists that can be rooted for.
Despite so many of its characters coming from such a small community, Turn of the Tide manages to deliver a great range of personalities that combine to create some strong interactions. These unique personalities are utilized by the cast to great effect. there are several pairings in this series that have great chemistry when they are on the screen together.
Eduardo and Carlinhos bring the most authentic friendship to the series, as both characters always feel like they have known each other all their lives, thanks to how the actors play off each other. The other most noteworthy pairing actually comes from the two primary law enforcement characters. With one being a local officer and the other a detective sent from the mainland, the two form an excellent partner relationship as they strive to put all the clues together in the series of crimes that come to unfold throughout the course of the show.
Despite great chemistry and a compellingly maintained moral ambiguity for the story to live in, Turn of the Tide never manages to pull together that final something to push it over the top. There is tension and drama that never feels truly stoked, even when the threats are imminent. This feels largely due to a fairly conservative approach to the show’s cinematography. The camera work never feels bold enough with elements like angles and lighting to fully push the most dramatic moments to their highest potential.
Another element that doesn’t help the show’s failure to land those last few dramatic points is its incoherent soundtrack. The music that accompanies this series is absolutely all over the place. While some scores can make a variety of sounds vitalizing for a narrative, this show just feels scattered and uncertain. Like it’s simply throwing everything at the musical wall, hoping something will stick.
These pros and cons come together to make Turn of the Tide a strong but flawed tale. It provides an excellently maintained moral grey area for its protagonists to work in, even though how the series presents the drama never does due it the full justice it requires.
Turn of the Tide is streaming now on Netflix.
