Starring Michel Joelsas, Germano Haiut. Written by Claudio Galperin,
Brauilio Mantovani, Anna Muylaert, Cao Hamburger. Directed by Cao
Hamburger. (STC) 105 min. Opens March 28.
The year in The Year My Parents Went on Vacation is 1970, and the parental units in question aren’t off for some R&R. They’re political revolutionaries on the run from Brazil’s repressive dictatorship, and their plan is to stow their young son Mauro (Michel Joelsas) with his grandfather on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, a good plan scuttled by an unexpected complication: the old man has already died.
Fortunately, Mauro is taken in by one of his grandfather’s neighbours, Shlomo (Germano Hauit), a Yiddish-speaking codger who makes a show of being cantankerous but is a sweetie at heart. The film goes on to illustrate Mauro’s integration into the ethnically diverse community, who rally around shared anxieties about the country’s political situation and the upcoming World Cup — a seminal event that Mauro’s parents have promised him they will return in time for.
The script (by Hamburger and three helpers) is intelligent enough, but it also feels like a checklist of coming-of-age-film standbys (burgeoning sexuality; the slow encroachment of the adult world; joyful sports mania). That the film is nicely photographed and generally well-performed — Joelsas is more spontaneous than most movie moppets — doesn’t excuse how flat and unaffected it feels on a scene-to-scene basis: The Year My Parents Went on Vacation doesn’t so much draw you in as glide on by.