Someone Borrowed (Netflix, 2022)

Someone Borrowed (Esposa de Aluguel) is a breezy romantic comedy from Brazil about a bachelor who hires an actress to play his future wife. Guess what? They fall in love.

Luiz (popular Brazilian star Caio Castro) isn’t the kind of guy who needs to hire a woman to impress his family. He changes girlfriends every three months and tries to live his best single life, even though he is also a live-at-home son without a proper job. He is a good cook, though, which cuts him some slack with his family.

When his mother announces that she has only six months to live, she threatens to write him out of his will if he doesn’t get married.

Problems ensue as the actress he hires, Lina (Thati Lopes), can’t seem to stick to the script and things soon get more complicated. Also, mom seems to have a few tricks up her sleeve too.

To be honest, Someone Borrowed - directed by Cris D’Amato from a script by Luanna Guimaraes - is not a movie that sets the bar too high. It gets by on an easy premise and the promise of escapism, and you can forget all about it the second that you’ve finished watching it. 

But the leads are not only attractive but also have chemistry, and the fact that Someone Borrowed has absolutely no pretensions actually works in its favor.