Review of The Consequences of Love

The Consequences of Love begins with some very stylish introductory sequences, acquainting us with the ritualised life of the protagonist. Most of the movie essentially consists of a series of 'clues' thrown to us by the director, through which we gradually form an understanding about Titta Di Girolamo's circumstances and tragic existence. At some point the movie abruptly shifts gear in order to show how this fragile world is demolished, as a consequence of the thawing of Titta's human emotions. Regrettably this is where the movie fails in this viewer's opinion. The reason is the very weak, non-believable and unmotivated twists in the plot. Titta's character performs a massive swing from never exchanging as much as eye contact with anyone, to performing mindless acts of dangerous folly to get Sofia's attention. This extreme tension within him has been so carefully hidden from the audience that when the swing happens, we are all left wondering. On a minor but related point we are never really sure as to where Sofia's interest in Titta comes from. In general one might say that the movie succeeds in engaging the audience only in a 'solve-the-mystery' or 'who-is-this-man' kind of way but never manages to really make us care for any of the characters.

To the movie's positive elements must be attributed the superb acting of Toni Servillo, the inspired camera work as well as very good use of musical ambiance. However, the truly exquisite style of the cinematography at times seems like the movie's own enemy, as there are scenes shouting with the 'stylishness' of fashion or car commercials, detracting from the movie's aims. In all, it is worth seeing and should be given credit as a promising effort by a new director, but, sadly, not much more.