The film’s sense of closure hardly feels earned after such harrowing events, not to mention the lack of accountability by those responsible. The standard postscript—complete with actual photos of the Paiva family to show how well the filmmakers replicated the real thing—lends the film a commercially friendly impression that some measure of order has been restored despite no one being charged with Rubens’ murder. Such a middlebrow approach offsets the material’s full cinematic potential, which might have confronted the viewer more and rendered I’m Still Here unforgettable.
— Brian Eggert (Deep Focus Review)
[The film's] aim isn’t uncompelling, but Salles’s reconstruction amounts to little more than a dollhouse. I’m Still Here’s affection for its subjects, though tender, is largely hagiographic. The film has trouble excavating any coarse humanism from this decidedly human story, painting the family, Eunice especially, in broad, uninspired strokes. It has little interest in them as people, and every interest in determining how history should remember them.
— Cole Kronman (Slant Magazine)
Synopsis: A woman married to a former politician during the 1971 military dictatorship in Brazil is forced to reinvent herself and chart a new course for her family after a violent and arbitrary act.