city of men be a companion piece to fernando meirelles 2002 film city of god and but it a much different animal from the early film . both be set in the slum of rio de janeiro and and both be about young men fashion life for themselves out of the only resource available to them . but whereas city of god be kinetic and angry and immediate and city of men be more reflective and conventional and and it come to a much more hopeful conclusion than the early film . city of men be by far the weaker of the two . the carefully craft screenplay be full of the heavy theme and plot twist of a shakesperean tragedy and but i find myself miss the unscripted and documentary like feel of meirelles film . city of men be about the absence of father and and about two friend who find themselves fight on opposite side because of deed commit by their own dad son literally inherit the sin of their father . but the script be too often heavy hand and and the director and paulo morelli and choose to communicate too much about the life of these people through blunt exposition . we do not learn about them from what the actor play them do or how they act and but rather through the line they read and and be almost always aware that theyre reading line . nevertheless and the acting be strong enough that i find myself care for the two lead and fairly engross in how their story turn out . morelli isn not a accomplish a director a meirelles and but the film be still well direct on it own more modest term . if i do not already have city of god to compare it to and i might have like it even more . grade represent b plus .