“Silvio” is a mess from start to finish. From the first trailer, you could already tell something was off, and sure enough, it was. The production doesn’t seem to know what story it wants to tell, and Marcelo Antunez’s mediocre direction is completely disorganized. The film tries to mix an over-the-top caricature with more serious drama, but fails miserably at both. In the end, the movie can’t hold on to any of its own ideas and completely falls apart.

The biggest issue lies in how they try to turn Silvio Santos into a biopic hero without really exploring who he truly was. They create an almost untouchable figure, like he never had moments of doubt, struggle, or mistakes. The approach turns Silvio into this almost mythological character who gets everything right, even in the toughest moments of his life. The film completely avoids questioning any of his tougher decisions, his failures as a businessman or presenter, opting for a shallow and romanticized portrayal, leaving out the dilemmas he probably faced.

The story itself is another disaster. The movie tries to focus on Silvio’s kidnapping, but quickly loses itself in a bunch of subplots that lead nowhere. It’s filled with characters who show up and disappear for no reason, like journalists, cops, even Silvio’s family members, but none of it gets properly developed. And those flashbacks? They’re poorly done and thrown in randomly, making the whole film feel disconnected, like a collage of unrelated scenes without a solid narrative thread.

Rodrigo Faro’s performance always felt more like a marketing move than an artistic choice, and that becomes painfully obvious when you watch the movie. Instead of truly portraying Silvio Santos, Faro sticks to a superficial and forced imitation that comes off as a cheap caricature. The problem only gets worse with the prosthetics: to make up for the 20-year age gap between Faro and the real Silvio at the time of the kidnapping, Faro was covered in prosthetics that, instead of helping, only make the artificiality of his performance stand out even more. The makeup doesn’t humanize the character, it just makes it seem like we’re watching someone in a fake Silvio Santos costume.

On the other hand, Felipe Castro, who plays Silvio as a teenager, manages to capture some of the presenter’s mannerisms in a subtle way, which is a relief in a film filled with unconvincing performances. But Vinicius Ricci, who plays Silvio between the ages of 24 and 33, completely misses the mark. He doesn’t resemble Silvio at all and, worse, has no connection to Faro’s performance. It’s as if the transition between the two actors was made without any concern for continuity.

Johnnas Oliva, cast as the kidnapper Fernando Dutra Pinto, had already portrayed the same character in the Star+ series “O Rei da TV”, which also covers Silvio’s life. If they followed this casting logic, they could’ve easily cast Mariano Mattos and José Rubens Chachá, who play Silvio at different stages in “O Rei da TV”, and honestly did a much better job than Faro does here. This lack of consistency only reinforces the feeling that the movie had no clue how to approach Silvio’s life, not even when it came to casting.

“Silvio” is a total letdown. Antunez’s direction is lost, Faro’s acting is weak, and the film as a whole lacks identity. What could have been an interesting tribute to the biggest figure in Brazilian TV ends up being a boring, forgettable production. Antunez tried to ride on Silvio’s popularity but failed to capture the essence and complexity of the real man behind the legend.