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Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
City Lights Pictures

Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The reviews


7.9

based on 19 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 10 votes
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Internet Movie Database

MPAA RATING: Not Rated

Starring Michel Joelsas, Daniela Piepszyk, and Liliana Castro

Set in the turbulent year of 1970, The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is a poignant and humorous coming-of-age story. Mauro is a 12-year-old boy thrust into a maelstrom of political and personal upheaval. When his left-wing militant parents are forced to go underground, Mauro is left in the care of his Jewish grandfather's neighbor in Sao Paulo. Suddenly finding himself an exile in his own country, Mauro is forced to create an ersatz family from the religiously diverse and colorful population of his new neighborhood. Mauro befriends Hanna, a street-smart tomboy, and develops a crush on Irene, a pretty waitress in a local bar. It is at this local bar that everyone, including Mauro (an ardent soccer fan), gathers to watch iconic star Pelé in the 1970 World Cup championship, which Mauro hopes to watch with his parents if they return to Brazil in time. (City Lights Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Cao Hamburger
DIRECTED BY:	Cao Hamburger
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 15, 2008 Theatrical: February 15, 2008
RUNNING TIME:	110 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Brazil
LANGUAGE(S):	Portuguese / Yiddish

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Pulls you into a well-observed world and its characters.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

A sweet, intelligent little movie.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This sweet, yet unsentimental film is about growing up, losing innocence, and longing for a place, and people, to call home.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

What makes this film appealingly honest are its details, not its grand events.

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The movie is stolen by 11-year-old Daniela Piepszyk as tomboy Hanna, one of Mauro's new friends. She has a face in a million.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Hamburger's earnest effort offers interesting perspectives on Jewish life in South America's most populous city as well as the fate of political dissidents during a particularly dark period of Brazil's recent past.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

The filmmakers succeed with an unexpected ending. It's as fresh as everything in the movie, which turns out to be about so much more than one youngster's resilience.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

It really only comes alive in its shots of people in the neighborhood sitting around their television sets. What we're really talking about here is a problem in scope. In Hamburger's film, the world is no bigger than a cup.

Variety Deborah Young

Sensitive, delicate and involving.

Village Voice Jean Oppenheimer

This warmly engaging film benefits from its understated approach (it suggests rather than spells out the political turmoil), and its light, comedic tone never mitigates the drama of the central story.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

The performances are charming and convincing, and Mr. Joelsas does a good job of conveying Mauro’s loneliness and confusion as well as his playfulness. The Year My Parents Went on Vacation may not be terribly fresh or original, but its warm, sweet, nostalgic tone is hard to dislike.

Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall

This nuanced coming-of-age drama by Cao Hamburger exudes warmth without getting mired in nostalgia.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Generally, this writer-director is too sensitive for his own good. He never lets his boy-hero lose himself fully in his new world - or relinquish hope that his parents will return.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Writer-director Cao Hamburger works well with child actors and has a spare, unforced style. But too much of this film is desultory and thin.

Miami Herald Marta Barber

One true gem is Daniela Piepszyk, Mauro's teen neighbor, who is a fireball and the leader of the neighborhood gang of boys. You can't take your eyes off her.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

A sweet and somber film that works hard to overcome its limitations.

Washington Post John Anderson

What The Year My Parents Went on Vacation seems to be about, in the end, is big-time sport as the opiate of the masses.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

A curiously unaffecting amalgam of the archetypal coming-of-age tale, here twinned to "outsider" religious overtones (in this case São Paulo's Orthodox Jewish community) and a small but deadly dose of uneasy political melodrama.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Tiago M. gave it a9:
A wonderful movie, sensitive, funnie, smart e very pleasant.

Rit B gave it a3:
Weak film that fails to grab the viewer's interest. The only plus is good camera work.

Michael S. gave it a9:
Enjoyable and sentimental, but involving as it blends soccer, jewish life for a boy, and the political and military milieu of 1970 Brazil.

Paula V. gave it a10:
really good movie!! they did more than they could have with the budged...the children dominate the scene completelly!!!

Deborah L. gave it an8:
quietly steals your heart more completely than dramas that are a lot louder

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Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The City Lights Pictures

Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
City Lights Pictures