A Brazilian coming-of-age teenage drama, Confessions of an Invisible Girl is a regular Netflix film that has nothing to offer. It showcases the same old plot where a socially awkward and nerdy girl craves friends and recognition and gets everything in the end. Following the cliché structure, the story also plants a mean antagonist who bullies other kids and suddenly realizes her mistake, leading to a massive transformation.
Director Bruno Garotti, who also directed an extremely similar film, “The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student,” brings nothing new to the table. To be blunt, anyone who has seen both his recent releases will understand the formula he follows in his screenplays. However, putting aside the norms of serious filmmaking, Confessions of an Invisible Girl is an entertaining movie that may keep you engaged.
‘Confessions of an Invisible Girl’ Plot Summary
Teanira “Tête” de Oliveira is a 15-year-old teenage girl who lives with her parents in Barra da Tijuca, a neighborhood in Rio. Due to her nerdy and socially awkward behavior, Tête doesn’t have any friends at school. She considers herself completely invisible. Suddenly, a charming young boy, Gustavo Sampaio, befriends Tête, and she helps the poor guy with his studies. However, in the process, Tête falls in love with Gustavo. She tries to kiss him when Gustavo breaks her heart and informs Tête that he only mingled with her to improve his grades.
A heartbroken Tête comes home only to find out about another tragedy. Tête’s father loses his job, and thus the family sells their apartment and moves into grandparent’s house in Copacabana.
Her grandmother makes fun of Tête’s antisocial behavior and hair on her body. She advises to make some friends at her new school, Copacabana High School. (She also mocks Tête’s mustache hair, but that’s really out of context).
Tête suffers from hyperhidrosis and sweats excessively when she gets nervous. On her first day of school, Tête decides not to embarrass herself due to sweating and eventually become an outcast again. She befriends another nerdy guy, Davi Araujo, who lives with his grandparents. Falling prey to her puberty, Tête gets attracted to a greek-god kinda-cute-boy, Erick Goulart. But before Tête can make a move, she finds out that Erick is dating the school’s most popular and boastful girl, Valentina Castro.
Tête finally makes some friends in her new school. However, Valentina hates the new outcast and decides to make Tête’s life a living hell. Will she be able to survive Valentina’s tyranny and find some happiness in her new life?
Choosing the Right Guy
For the biology project, the teacher asked the students to make a group of four people. Close friends, Tête, Davi, and Zeca, formed their group. However, they needed one more person. Erick stepped in and requested Tête to include him too. Tête saw an opportunity to get close to Erick and thus quickly invited him in. Soon, the outcasts entered Erick’s elite circle that consisted of Valentina and Lais.
Tête had never been to a party before, and she was yearning to get an invitation to Lais’ birthday party. She quickly used her wits and used Erick to get an invitation to the party for her group. For the party, Davi brought his older brother, Dudu, with him, and following her regime, Tête got infatuated with Dudu as well.
At the party, Tête encountered Valentina, who bullied her and embarrassed her mercilessly. A devastated Tête left the party.
The next day, Tête found out about Valentina and Erick’s breakup and thought it was her chance to date Erick. She even kissed Erick after his musical rehearsals that made her heart swoon. However, before sharing her adventures, another classmate, Samantha, confessed to Tête that she had kissed Erick at Lais’ birthday party. Tête realized that Erick was not charming but a prick who lured every girl who found him handsome. She broke ties with Erick and decided to pursue Dudu when suddenly Dudu’s grandfather expired. Dudu’s ex-girlfriend, Ingrid, comforted Dudu, which created an array of misunderstandings. Tête got emotionally traumatized, believing she had lost both the guys.
Confessions of an Invisible Girl’ Ending, Explained
Tête found out about her parents moving out of the grandparent’s house and renting an inexpensive apartment in Flamengo. Tête’s mother explained that they couldn’t afford Tête’s current school and would have to get her out of it. Tête was devastated, and she didn’t want to change schools again and start from scratch. However, there were few options at her disposal.
While presenting her biology project at the school, she mistakenly played a recording from Lais’ birthday party. In the video, Valentina belittled other students and proudly boasted of her superiority. Her words enraged the students in the class, and Valentina blamed Tête for plotting against her and recording her video without permission. In a rage, Valentina attacked Tête and crushed her spectacles.
In the principal office, Tête pleaded that she didn’t record the video or played it intentionally. The principal asked Tête to bring her parents the following day, but Tête knew that if her parents would learn about the incident, they would surely compel her to change schools. To prove her innocence, Tête checked all the videos from the party to find out the culprit.
The following day, Tête informed everyone that Lais’ mother unintentionally recorded the video. However, Lais intentionally planted it on Tête’s project drive to humiliate and take a dig at Valentina. According to Tête’s naive investigation, Lais’ real name was Lais Carolina Ribeiro, who lived in Rio and attended a school in Sao Paulo. Valentina, who was originally from Sao Paulo, studied with Lais in kindergarten. As a child, Valentina bullied an eight-year-old named Lais, making fun of her weight and nose. Lais suffered depression, and thus her parents decided to move to Rio de Janeiro for the safety of Lais’s mental health. In over eight years, Lais lost weight, got a nose job, and had facial harmonization surgery with her mother’s support. When this video came to her attention, she couldn’t help but expose a malevolent Valentina.
In the end, Valentina realized her mistake and apologized to Tête and Lais for her actions in the past. The classmate accepted Valentina and lived happily as usual. Tête’s principal was delighted to have such an outstanding student at her school and thus assured Tête’s parents that she would hold on to her as long as possible. Dudu cleared the misunderstanding and explained to Tête that her ex, Ingrid, was just a good friend and nothing was cooking between them. Hence, after the confusion was cleared, Tête finally dated Dudu, and Erick got along with Samantha.
Confessions of an Invisible Girl is a 2021 Brazilian romantic comedy film written and directed by Bruno Garotti. It is based on an original story written by Thalita Rebouças.
