Lula, the Son of Brazil
Metascore
44 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 9 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 9
  3. Negative: 2 out of 9
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  1. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    Jan 12, 2012
    70
    A conventional, rather shallow up-by-your-bootstraps drama, but with a difference.
  2. NPR
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    Jan 24, 2012
    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.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Sheri Linden
    Jan 26, 2012
    50
    Fábio Barreto's film is an act of hero worship, not a multifaceted exploration of a charismatic leader.
  4. Variety
    Reviewed by: Robert Koehler
    Jan 9, 2012
    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.
  5. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    Jan 14, 2012
    42
    The film is more testimonial than drama.
  6. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    Jan 10, 2012
    40
    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.
  7. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    Jan 10, 2012
    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.
  8. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Fernando F. Croce
    Jan 9, 2012
    38
    This insipidly inspirational biopic of the two-term Brazilian president is a safe, bourgeois vision of proletarian struggle.
  9. New York Post
    Reviewed by: V.A. Musetto
    Jan 13, 2012
    25
    Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil's reformist two-term president, gets the once-over-lightly treatment in Lula, Son of Brazil.

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