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The title isn't art-house pretentiousness, it's literal: This is a movie about a man named André (Ramos) who runs a copy machine. He lusts after his panty-less co-worker, but he's in love with the young girl who lives across the way from his apartment. He stares at her through his telescope every evening, and finally gets up the courage to go visit her at the clothing store where she works.
Meanwhile, André's job is so dull that he has to imagine fantasy scenarios for himself to escape the doldrums of operating a copy machine. (This is probably a good thing, as watching André make copies all day would not have been great cinema.) It's not the richly detailed dreamworld of Jeunet, but more of a cartoony creation of random non-sequiturs.
Over time, a story develops: What will poor André do to get the girl? Well, it involves the copier and currency, and we'll leave it at that.
The movie's big failing is that it's two hours long, with barely a minute going by without Ramos providing incessant voice-over. This is actually charming for awhile -- the opening scene of him haggling over prices at the grocery store and deciding what to buy and what to leave behind is infinitely more interesting and engaging than it has any right to be -- but after 45 minutes, Ramos's voice starts to grind you down. It's like talking to your mom on the phone: You love her, but after an hour of hearing stories about her daily life, friends, errands, and other minutiae, you'll look for any excuse to hang up. As such, our minds start to wander over time. And that's unfortunate, because that's where all the story is.
Ramos, though from certain angles he looks surprisingly like everyday schlub Kenan Thompson (Fat Albert), is an engaging hero. Leandra Leal is a bit young for the part (and you might feel a bit dirty hoping she runs off with the sort-of lecherous André), but overall she's equally enchanting. Ultimately the big failing here is that Copied simply wears out its welcome too quickly, thanks to the endless repetition of its setting, scenarios, and that damned voice over. Lázaro Ramos: Get out of my brain!
Aka O Homem Que Copiava.
