Opposites attract as Miranda Otto’s poet finds love with a female architect in Reaching for the Moon

REACHING for the Moon: Miranda Otto stars in the true story of a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who becomes the lover of a famous female architect.

Miranda Otto and Glória Pires in a scene from the film Reaching For the Moon. Leap Frog flms.

WHAT might have been a basic, by-the-numbers biopic is enhanced by the yin and yang of two dynamically disparate performances here.

Miranda Otto stars as Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Elizabeth Bishop, a fragile woman on the brink of falling apart as she arrives for a holiday in Brazil in the 1950s.

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Miranda Otto is poet Elizabeth Bishop and Gloria Pires plays architect Lota Soares.

A simmering attraction to one of her hosts at a swish country pad outside Rio unlocks an internal strength Bishop never really knew she possessed.

Once Bishop becomes the fully fledged lover of famous Brazilian architect Lota Soares (Gloria Pires), she discovers there is a price to pay for her new-found confidence.

Though keeping pace with the indefatigable Soares pushes Bishop to write some of the greatest works of her career, it also reignites a battle with the bottle she thought was long behind her.

The seemingly mismatched Bishop and Soares got along like a house on a fire.

Though Reaching For the Moon sometimes looks ready to devolve into mawkish soap opera, Otto and Pires aren’t having any of that.

There is a real spark to their interplay that conveys exactly why the seemingly mismatched Bishop and Soares got along like a house on a fire, even when driving each other beyond crazy.

While the provincial Brazilian scenery and slick period production design are certainly seductive to the eye, it is what happens in the foreground that truly matters.

Miranda Otto and Gloria Pires in a scene from<i> Reaching For the Moon</i>.

Reaching for the Moon (M)

Director: Bruno Barreto (View From the Top)

Starring: Gloria Pires, Miranda Otto, Tracy Middendorf, Marcelo Airoldi

Verdict: Three stars. Poetry in emotion

Originally published as Opposites attract as Miranda Otto’s poet finds love with a female architect in Reaching for the Moon