38
This insipidly inspirational biopic of the two-term Brazilian president is a safe, bourgeois vision of proletarian struggle.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
40
A sense of the man himself seems absent in Fábio Barreto's portrait, however, and other than a rally scene with prescient Occupy Wall Street overtones, you're mostly left with facts, dates and iconic poses.
60
Long on hero worship and woefully short on insight, Lula: Son of Brazil oozes good intentions, but it wouldn't look out of place in a retrospective of early Soviet workerist cinema.
40
Village Voice by Melissa Anderson
Forget "Son of Brazil": This syrupy origin story/biopic on the nation's beloved reformist president, whose second term ended in 2010, should be titled Mama's Boy.
42
Christian Science Monitor by Peter Rainer
The film is more testimonial than drama.
50
The screenplay by Daniel Tendler, Fernando Bonassi and Lula biographer Parana succumbs to many of the most unfortunate narrative tendencies of biopics, including a proclivity for piling on incident after incident as a substitute for real character insight.
70
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
A conventional, rather shallow up-by-your-bootstraps drama, but with a difference.
25
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's reformist two-term president, gets the once-over-lightly treatment in Lula, Son of Brazil.