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Year My Parents Went On Vacation (The)
R1 - America - City Lights Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Jeremiah Chin (28th August 2008). |
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The Film
 Putting a spin on the traditional ‘coming-of-age’ drama is a fine art, putting a new twist on an old genre that can keep the audience engaged despite playing through a series of events that have been done elsewhere. Brazillian director Cao Hamburger’s “The Year My Parents Went On Vacation” (2007) revisits that emotional territory, but ultimately ends up stuck in the middle of the genre by going through the motions without really making it stand out. The story takes place in 1970’s Brazil when Mauro (Michel Joelsas) is sent to his grandfather’s house while his parents ‘go on vacation’ or in other words go into hiding to avoid the authoritarian right-wing government. Mauro’s father promises that they will return in time for the world cup when Brazil competes. When Mauro arrives at his grandfather’s apartment he discovers that his grandfather has died, however Mauro’s parents are already gone and he winds up being taken care of by his grandfather’s neighbor Schlomo (Germano Haiut). Gradually Mauro makes friends and learns lesson in the diverse São Paulo community. While much of the movie is about the need for Mauro to grow up or learn different ways of living after being the odd child out in the predominantly Jewish and Italian community he finds himself in, he seems to get over the death of his grandfather and his missing parents too easily. There are requisite scenes of anguish and drama, even heartbreak while he waits in vain for his parents to return during the world cup despite the fact that they have likely been abducted by government forces, but somewhere between Joelsas’s acting and the script I don’t particularly get involved in his story or buy into his loss. At times the story seems almost contrived in how it’s paced, though supposedly it’s semi-autobiographical for director Hamburger, seemingly going so quickly from odd person out, to deeply connected to the community, to being able to uproot. There are some interesting shots and some good aspects of Hamburger’s directing, but much like the film itself it doesn’t really do more than it has to. There are some good shots, however these are too few and far between to really make the film visually above average. Hamburger does a good job of covering one of the soccer matches when the entire city shuts down and gathers to watch their country compete in the world cup. The decision to use original footage of Brazil’s matches is a nice touch and the reactions from the different parts of the community add a good feel to the movie, but other than this scene there’s not much to get me really engaged. Eventually when it becomes apparent that Mauro’s parents aren’t coming back anytime soon, Schlomo investigates their disappearance with the assistance of some of the left-leaning community members. I never quite buy the bond that Schlomo and Mauro forge, going from the initial grudge the two hold and bickering to becoming close almost-relatives. Overall, it’s a fairly mediocre film with a few good scenes sprinkled in for good measure, but nothing spectacular. (Some Spoilers Ahead) My biggest problem with the film may be the ending, when after Schlomo finds Mauro’s mother they quickly reconnect and soon Mauro and his mother leave the community behind to escape the government. This is understandable and makes sense in terms of her safety, but it seems shortchanged in terms of the lack of development they’ve given to his mother and the almost over developed the connection to the community. While there could be a greater point made about the losses and how quickly things are taken away, the movie favors sentimentality in the end and just doesn’t hit the right tone.
Video
The 1.85:1 aspect ratio is anamorphic and looks fine, the video quality is fairly good, but the transfer could be cleaner. There’s some pretty noticeable grain and even some artifacts that will pop up occasionally. Otherwise the coloring and lighting of the movie is good, the set design and coloring of the city looks like the 1970’s are usually portrayed and does a good job staying consistent as far as I can tell.
Audio
Presented in Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1, the sound is pretty good and so is the music. The quality stays consistent and there aren’t any real problems with levels or pops in the quality. Musically the scoring of the movie hits the right notes for the right scenes, but is nothing that I would listen to outside of the film itself. Subtitles are available in English and Spanish.
Extras
The DVD comes equipped with featurettes, bloopers, deleted/extended scenes and, of course, theatrical trailers. First up is “Interviews with Cast and Crew” running for 15 minutes and 38 seconds, which is more a featurette than anything else as it’s a bundle of 8 interviews covering a variety of topics separated by title cards introducing the next talking head. Director Hamburger talks about his interesting in the time period the film is set in and working with child actors, Joelsas talks about his characters relationship with the Schlomo character and sounds like one of those creepy child actors who sounds too much like an adult in the way he talks. Haiut discusses Jewish actors in Sao Paulo, and Daniela Piepszyk talks about her character’s child romance with Mauro and there are some odd translation errors in the subtitles. Interestingly there are interviews with Simone Spoladore and Eduardo Moreira who play Mauro’s parents, which is odd considering how little screen time they have; Spoladore talks about love and children, while Moreira talks about being a child in the 70’s. The other three interviews are with Caio Blat who played Ítalo and producers Caio Gullane and Fabiano Gullane, who talk about different aspects of production, working with all the different actors and putting the movie together. Overall some good interviews, though not entirely that interesting since I didn’t really get into the movie and the interviews don’t draw me too much further in. The “Inside the Movie” featurette runs for 9 minutes and 51 seconds, briefly covering the production, showing parts of behind the scenes footage spliced in with some interviews from the actors and producers. A short documentary that doesn’t do a lot beyond what the interviews did, even using aspects of the interviews in this shorter piece spliced with on set and actual film footage. The bloopers reel runs for 1 minute and 52 seconds and proves that bloopers and on set hijinks are the same no matter where the film is made. Typical flubbed lines, but there aren’t any subtitles so this could be funnier or just confusing depending on how you feel at the time. There are also two extended/deleted scenes: - “Vignette” runs for 1 minute and 21 seconds, where Mauro and Scholo take a picture together and Mauro spends some more time with the people he’s about to leave behind, seems like there was some small things cut out that make the ending a bit better that should have been left in, however there are no subtitles so I can only judge based off of what I saw rather than the dialogue. - “Soccer Game” runs for 3 minutes and 34 seconds, this is an extended scene of the soccer game featured earlier in themovie with some more setup before the game, again there are no subtitles but this scene is far more voiceover heavy and so more frustrating. There are also two theatrical trailers for “The Year My Parents Went On Vacation”: - The USA trailer runs for 1 minute and 50 seconds. - The International trailer runs for 2 minutes and 22 seconds. There’s also a handful of startup bonus trailers on the disc as well: - “Kiss of the Spider Woman” runs for 2 minutes and 5 seconds. - “Harold” runs for 2 minutes and 31 seconds. - “A Generation Apart” runs for 2 minutes and 36 seconds. - “Manda Bala (Send a Bullet)” runs for 2 minutes and 43 seconds.
Overall
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