Sightlines · reception

How My Mom Is a Character 3 was received

2019 · Susana Garcia · My Mom Is a Character 3 on Sightlines

The arc

A record-smashing crowd-pleaser in Brazil in 2019, it took on a whole new emotional weight after star Paulo Gustavo died of COVID-19 in 2021 — what was once a light family comedy is now widely rewatched as a farewell to his beloved Dona Hermínia.

What’s debated

The classic audience-vs-critics split: Brazilian critics tend to shrug at the broad Globo Filmes comedy formula, while audiences made it a phenomenon and defend it fiercely.

Its footprint

Dona Hermínia — Paulo Gustavo's motormouthed matriarch, born in his hit one-man stage show — is one of modern Brazil's most quoted and memed comic characters, her rants endlessly recycled across Brazilian social media.

Where it stands

On Brazilian Letterboxd it's less a movie than a shrine — a comfort-watch turned tribute object, with review sections full of homages to Paulo Gustavo.

Did you know? It became the highest-grossing Brazilian film of all time at the domestic box office, selling over 11 million tickets — and Dona Hermínia is based on Paulo Gustavo's real mother, Déa Lúcia.