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After City Of God and The Man Of The Year, it seemed Brazilian cinema could do no wrong. Sadly, this overblown tale of vengeance, retribution, and inflamed Latin American passion is the exception that proves the rule. A tall tale about three sisters (Jùlia Lemmertz, Maria Luisa Mendonça, Luíza Mariani) sent out to avenge their father's death at the hands of a rival clan, The Three Marias is pompous to the point of silliness.

"You should never feel pain without first giving sustenance to anger," advises Filomena (Marieta Severo) after an old flame kills her husband and sons in a series of ruthless assassinations. One son is burned alive, another has his eyes plucked, while her husband is hanged with his own intestines. It's a family feud and nobody's taking prisoners.

Following her own advice, Filomena dispatches her daughters (all rather confusingly named Maria) into the barren landscape of northern Brazil, instructing them to search out three infamous killers and enlist their help in the family feud.

"DAVKID LYNCH CROSSED WITH BRAZILIAN SOAP"

Full of flights of fancy, surreal encounters, and lots of magical scenes that could have come straight out of a particularly nasty fairytale, The Three Marias ought to have been far more fun than it actually is. Like a David Lynch movie crossed with a Brazilian soap opera, it's crammed full of imaginative weirdness (the three killers turn out to be an insane convict, a policeman who's been bitten by a rabid dog, and a woman-hating snake charmer who refuses to speak to any member of the opposite sex).

Unable to keep so many flights of fancy in the air at the same time, director Aluízio Abranches ultimately drops the lot, creating an operatic tale of vengeance that clunks off the screen without making much sense or creating much excitement. There's no denying its camp potential, but it's simply not good - or bad - enough to be worth investing time in.

In Portuguese with English subtitles.