Review of The Year My Parents Went on Vacation (2006) by Walter M — 26 Mar 2009

I feel like I should have liked this movie more than I did, as there is really and truly nothing wrong with it. The actors, both child and adult, all turn out strong performances, there is an abundance of genuinely touching material to be found and the pacing is well done.

And yet something just wasn't quite falling into place with the film. Like I said, there is nothing "wrong" with it so to say, but at the same time there is very little about it that stands out as something special or even new.

Much of the aspects of the story: a young boy having to fend for himself, political dissidents on the run from the law, a child being raised by a whole community... I felt I'd seen all these things done multiple times before and with more panache.

So while nothing on this film was done poorly, it still manages to fall kind of flat whereas many other coming of age in troubled times/social-climates stories that have come before have been emotionally devastating.

I'm not exactly certain what it was that this film was missing to give it that extra oomph, but there was certainly something more that could have been done to make it good rather than merely decent.