O Ano em que Meus Pais Saíram de Férias (2006)

English title: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation.
Synopsis: In 1970, Brazil was under a military dictatorship. A couple has to hide (there is no hint as to what exactly they are being persecuted for, but it is implicit that it's something considered subversive by the regime) and leaves their only son at his grandfather's (without checking first if he was at home -- I'm not kidding). Said grandfather had died moments ago and the boy is left at the care of the Jewish community living in the same building. It is the year of the soccer World Cup and the boy is a soccer fan.
*This comment contains spoilers*
Appraisal: If you read the above synopsis, you may have guessed what my first grudge about this movie is: the parents didn't check if the grandfather was there! It is the kind of thing that should prompt everyone in the audience to leave the cinema immediately -- c'mon, what kind of real people would drop their son in the sidewalk and leave, for Christ's sake -- but I was polite (and had no means of transportation to leave the mall...) so I remained until the end of the movie. Sadly, the film doesn't improve a bit afterwards. There isn't a single intelligent sequence or performance. Nothing. And now it is definitive: Brazil has officially become a branch of Hollywood, filmically speaking. Some of the worst vices in American cinema are present in this film, and I will give just a few examples: the boy has a sequence alone in which a jolly song in the soundtrack plays in the rhythm of his movements; in a party, a song is played and the boy starts dancing, which prompts every one in the room to start dancing too, in a most frenetic and contagious way; etc. Example of a stupid scene: the boy is starving, yet refuses the pie that the girl brought him -- of course, he will eat it later, he just doesn't want to show the girl that he has such lowly, shameful needs such as eating. Example of a stupid line: when the boy asks his mother about the whereabouts of his father, she answers 'your father is always late'; as if anyone remotely human would be trying for wit in a situation like that! Bottom line: this is an empty, superficial film, with cardboard characters, clichéd situations, and no imagination or cinematic skill.
Rating: 15