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'Year My Parents Went on Vacation' has familiar feel
By
Steve Persall, Times film critic
In print: Thursday, May 1, 2008
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Michel Joelsas is Mauro, who comes of age in The Year My Parents Went on Vacation.
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[City Lights Pictures]
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The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (PG) (104 min.) — Twelve-year-old Mauro (Michel Joelsas) understands nothing about military oppression in 1970 Brazil; he is preoccupied with the nation's soccer team charging to a third consecutive World Cup championship. His parents aren't so carefree, fleeing imprisonment or worse and leaving Mauro in his grandfather's care. After the old man dies, Mauro moves in with his aged Jewish neighbor Shlomo (Germano Haiut), disrupting his tidy bachelor life. Director Cao Hamburger does a decent job of balancing Mauro's coming-of-age whimsy with the specter of right-wing dictatorship. We get the usual scenes of the boy becoming sexually aware through peepholes, his platonic crush on a neighbor (Daniela Piepszyk) and Mauro charming everyone into overlooking their cultural differences. It all seems too familiar, except for the Brazilian locales. Contrasting a child's innocence with political turmoil is a cliche that only Pan's Labyrinth has added anything fresh to in recent years. Joelsas is a natural before the camera, easy to smile at and cry with. Hamburger's movie is interesting but repetition makes us desire much more. Shown with English subtitles. B- Steve Persall, Times film critic
[Last modified: Apr 30, 2008 04:31 AM]
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