Pulitzer Prize wining poet Elizabeth Bishop was a woman 'made at right angles to the world'. An uptight contemporary of Robert Lowe, she was as uncomfortable in her own skin as she was in the world at large. Yet in 1951 Bishop made the unlikely decision to journey to Brazil and visit a friend. What she learned changed her life forever.

Pulitzer Prize wining poet Elizabeth Bishop was a woman 'made at right angles to the world'. An uptight contemporary of Robert Lowe, she was as uncomfortable in her own skin as she was in the world at large. Yet in 1951 Bishop made the unlikely decision to journey to Brazil and visit a friend. What she learned changed her life forever.

Reaching For The Moon is by turn a fascinating account of three women whose circumstances were in the vanguard of sexual liberation. Bishop's close friend Mary was in a relationship with celebrated Brazilian architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Unexpectedly, Elizabeth's arrival turned Lota's head and the relationship become decidedly modern, especially when new terms were struck and Lota adopted a child for Mary. They were provocative, unapologetic women.

The film is also unashamedly melodramatic as only a Latin story can be. In addition to creating a sumptuous, elegant period, director Bruno Barreto ticks off significant markers (Kennedy's assassination, Brazil's military coup) with the wave of a hand, forcing them into the background as he concentrates on the arch emotion of his protagonists.

This approach lends the film a touch of Mills And Boon, but one that is all but neutralised by the snappy performance of Glória Pires as Soares and the wonderfully conflicted presence of Australia's Miranda Otto (The Turning) as Bishop. They're such polar opposites (looks, attitude, demeanour, character) that together they create a convincing whole; two women who become a force of nature. Certainly Lota's patronage enabled Elizabeth to do her best work, likewise Bishop's love gave rise to Soare's finest creation – Rio de Janeiro's Flamengo Park (from which the film gains its title although its original – Flores Raras (Rare Flowers) – is much better).

'The art of loosing's not too hard to master' wrote Bishop of her years in Brazil, Baretto's recurrent theme. It is also one of growth as the nervous Elizabeth Bishop blossoms into a provocateur, a standard bearer and a dominant force in literature.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 13 February 2014