Fact-based family dramas don’t come more intense or indelible than "I’m Still Here," opening wide in theaters this week on the heels of a surprise Golden Globe win for star Fernanda Torres as best actress. Snatching the Globe from such fierce A-listers as Angelina Jolie ("Maria"), Nicole Kidman ("Babygirl") and Kate Winslet ("Lee") takes a lot. And Torres has what it takes.
Her role is Eunice Paiva, a mother of five in a bustling, beachfront Brazil household in Rio de Janeiro. We see kids tumbling around in joyous play as Eunice floats on the water under a cloudless blue sky, reveling in her upper-middle-class life as the wife of Rubens (the superb Selton Mello), a former congressman.
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Things darken when eldest daughter Vera (Valentina Herszage), out driving with friends, is ordered out of her car by police and held at gunpoint. The time is 1971, a period of military dicatorship and human-rights abuses that will last until 1985 and leave ordinary citizens in fear of imprisonment, torture and death.
Things come to head when Rubens is taken in for routine questioning and never seen again. Later, when Eunice dares to demand answers about her husband from the authorities, she is blindfolded and taken in for interrogation, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Eliana (Luiza Kozovski). The screams of other prisoners echo through the walls.
For a harrowing 12 days, Eunice -- unable to seek legal counsel -- is barraged with questions and threats and forced to go through mountains of photos to identify possible enemies of the state. Except for her husband and a teacher at her daughter’s school, she recognizes no one.
It’s clear that Brazilian director Walter Salles ("The Motorcycle Diaries") takes the story personally. As a child, he was a frequent guest at the Paiva home and sees their family trauma as symbolic of his country. Salles’ deep commitment shines through every scene. It’s significant that the film’s script is based on a book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, Eunice and Rubens son.
It’s impossible not to be moved to tears by "I’m Still Here," an emotional powerhouse which finds its bruised heart in the understated, overwhelming performance by Torres, which represents acting at its finest, the kind of portrayal that awards were created to reward.
After Rubens "disappeared," Eunice is at first helpless. Unable to cash checks without her husband’s signature, she moves her family from Rio to São Paulo and returns to college. At 48, she graduates with a law degree and becomes a political activist determined to clear her husband’s name and make sure that democracy in her county will not be easily toppled again.
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As her country rebuilds, Eunice also reconstructs her family, made up of adults ready to take their place in the world. Much of the early joy in family togetherness is recaptured, except this time with grandchildren showing how life goes gloriously on in the Paiva family.
In a touching casting coup, the revered actress Fernanda Montenegro ‑‑ 95 and the real-life mother of Torres ‑- steps into the role of Eunice. Though confined to a wheelchair and suffering decline from Alzheimer’s, Eunice speaks volumes with eyes that reflect an undying spirit.
Also of note: It was Salles who directed Montenegro to a best actress Oscar nomination for 1998’s "Central Station." Can Torres follow her mother with a similar honor when the Academy announces acting nominees on January 23? I’d call that poetic justice.
