Garrincha: Lonely Star (2003)
"Garrincha - Estrela Solitária" (original title)

The life of Brazilian soccer player, Garrincha, considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, with his uniquely original style. He had arched legs, a passion for women and booze... See full summary »

Director:

Milton Alencar

Writers:

Aldir Blanc, Rodrigo Campos,

Stars:

Taís Araújo, Milhem Cortaz, Ana Couto

3 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Taís Araújo	...	Elza Soares
Milhem Cortaz
Ana Couto	...	Iraci
Chico Díaz	...	Sobral
Marcelo Escorel
Romeu Evaristo	...	Suingue
Miguel Falabella
Guti Fraga
André Gonçalves	...	Garrincha
Milton Gonçalves
Créo Kellab	...	Didi
Tatiana Merino	...	Angelita Martinez
Henrique Pires	...	Sandro Moreyra
Marília Pêra	...	Vanderléia
Roberta Rodrigues	...	Nair

Storyline

The life of Brazilian soccer player, Garrincha, considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, with his uniquely original style. He had arched legs, a passion for women and booze. Also had a much talked extramarital affair with singer Elza Soares and died in relative decadence. The movie focuses on his zenith, from 1953 until the World Championship and the Rio Regional Championship, in 1962.

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Plot Keywords:

extramarital affair | soccer | sex | female frontal nudity | racial slur | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Brazil Chile

Language:

Portuguese

Release Date:

6 October 2003 (Brazil)

Also Known As:

Garrincha: Lonely Star

Company Credits

Production Co:

FAM Filmes

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Did You Know?

Goofs

The cable car in the Sugar Loaf is the new one (from 1972 to 2007) and not the red model was used in 1954, when the story was set.

User Reviews

Relatively good but never enough to present the legend's legacy

I watched this a long time ago so my perception of this film may not be so analytic as I tend to do in other reviews but what I do remember of "Garrincha - Estrela Solitária" was a nice picture, somewhat good but very limited considered how big Garrincha was and is in Brazilian culture.

Here's one of the most distinctive soccer players of all time (played by André Gonçalves) considered one of the greatest of Brazil (and those who saw it during 1958 and 1962's World Cups know how good he was), known as 'The Angel with Bent Legs', with unequaled dribbling skills and moves. But the movie haven't showed us that neither his historical matches in the World Cups. So how come a movie about a soccer player doesn't feature scenes of him playing? Huge mistake! There's a few scenes but they never satisfy our hunger for knowing how brilliant the man was on the field.

Instead, all we have is a detailed view on his troubled private life, his marriage with singer Elza Soares (Taís Araújo), his drinking problems that later caused his death by the age of 49. His legacy wasn't well translated to the screen, only the bad parts were.

What is quite shameful or a little bit trivial is the amount of time spent in showing his sexual life (yeah, I know there was lots of rumors about the size of his intimate parts, and things like that but the film never goes that far in showing such). What we get is a few dramas and lots of sex but almost nothing of his talents on camp. Considering the figure's stature and how symbolic Garrincha was and also considering that this film was adapted from Ruy Castro's book, which I don't even need to read to say it's great because the author is an impeccable and influential person in Brazilian journalism, this film could have been so much better.

Performances are good; the recreating of places and events are okay and adding the fact biographical films are rare to be made, this film gets my approval, I liked it despite letting the most important issue on the side. 6/10