Director Cao Hamburger's decision to capture the era through Mauro's eyes makes the world outside of soccer vague and frustrating
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02/23/08
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The Year My Parents Went On Vacation (2008)
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Reviews Counted:52
Fresh:43
Rotten:9
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Hamburger deftly refracts the sociopolitical tumult of early '70s Brazil through the lens of a young boy's coming of age, and Joelsas' performance is wise beyond his years.
Theatrical Release:Feb 15, 2008 Limited
Synopsis: This Brazilian import is set during the excitement of the 1970 World Cup. While the country focuses its attention on the epic soccer tournament, a boy is separated from his parents as they are... [More]
Starring: Michel Joelsas, Germano Haiut, Caio Blat, Daniela Piepszyk
Director: Cao Hamburger
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Reviews for The Year My Parents Went On Vacation
We've seen such coming-of-age tales many times before, and your liking of this movie will largely depend on how passionate you are about soccer.
02/11/08
A painless enough movie, which is precisely the problem
08/27/09
The film's final third contains a glimmer of a great movie wanting to break out.
02/13/08
Top CriticIt has little to do with any actual human experience and everything with re-creating experiences from other movies.
02/14/08
click for full review
11/08/08
Mauro's character is underwritten, but Michel Joelsas delivers a believable, pained lad capable of still being a child.
01/18/08
Director and co-writer Cao Hamburger presents all of this in such a timid and sanitized manner that one would suspect childhood wasn't a messy affair. Unfortunately for Hamburger, we've all been there, done that.
04/30/08
The director's understatement is married to a story that's frustratingly unexceptional.
02/13/08
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is a meticulous, fascinating and tender story of Brazil in 1970 when revolution was in the air and the World Cup was the hope of bringing a country back together.
03/23/08
This nuanced coming-of-age drama by Cao Hamburger exudes warmth without getting mired in nostalgia.
03/21/08
I found the film fascinating for showing me entertainingly a world I still know very little about.
02/06/08
Top Critic... neither striking nor ultimately memorable, but it provides a pleasant diversion ...
02/14/08
The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is an appealing dramedy that delicately couches its political and social commentary in a coming of age tale.
07/09/08
Most political films involving children are vicious or sentimental. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation, set in 1970 when Brazil was under the military dictatorship of General Emilio Medici, is neither.
04/11/08
One of those adorable foreign kid/cranky old folks heartwarmers.
02/15/08
Steps into the shoes of youth remembered, a summer when a boy's wide eyes are opened further by disillusion--the final whistle sounds sharp and harsh, echoing long after the game's over. An elegant, reflective film that dekes around coming-of-age cliches.
07/01/08
A Brazilian dramedy that touches on politics, sex, family and religion but is interested in them only to the extent that they rub off on the movie's people.
04/18/08
Director Cao Hamburger has a warm, delicate sensibility that informs the story's commonplace events. Neither the story's drama nor its comedy are overstated.
04/17/08
Sensitive, delicate and involving...
10/05/07
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