This is a prime example of what's wrong with contemporary Italian cinema - it's so afraid to try anything that might not appeal to as vast an audience as possible, that it ends up pleasing no one. There are a few exceptions of course, but considering we are talking about a country which had not just a fine, but a glorious cinematic heritage in the past (I would say up until about the mid-1970s), it's only natural one should wonder what happened in the meantime for it to end up in the duldrums in this way.
This 2003 movie was marketed as a rom-com, something I don't object to in itself as I think any genre is a likely place to create a fine movie, even a masterpiece. With a good part of the story being set during Fascist-era Italy, I thought it might have an interesting edge to it, as you would find in something like Ettore Scola's Una Giornata Particolare - not so. I have no idea why it was set at this specific time in history and not the present day, since besides the hair-dos and clothes vaguely evoking the time, the feel of the epoch was completely absent. The two leads, Stefania Rocca and Marco Cocci, did the best they could with fairly insipid characters and a wet rag of a script, which had a sense of emotional and psychological shallowness (the director and scriptwriter, for whom this was his debut feature, had worked in advertisement, and it shows). Luca Zingaretti, in the role of their friend who becomes a priest, was probably the most noteworthy performer here - this movie left me hoping that I shall soon see him in a movie and character that he can really sink his teeth into.
Possibly the single most irritating thing about this movie was the soundtrack, following every single scene like a bad smell. There it was, constantly, constantly, constantly playing in the background - at one point I even considered switching off the sound altogether and watching it with the subtitles on: it was that annoying! I don't recommend this movie, unless you have only seen about a dozen movies in your entire life.
This 2003 movie was marketed as a rom-com, something I don't object to in itself as I think any genre is a likely place to create a fine movie, even a masterpiece. With a good part of the story being set during Fascist-era Italy, I thought it might have an interesting edge to it, as you would find in something like Ettore Scola's Una Giornata Particolare - not so. I have no idea why it was set at this specific time in history and not the present day, since besides the hair-dos and clothes vaguely evoking the time, the feel of the epoch was completely absent. The two leads, Stefania Rocca and Marco Cocci, did the best they could with fairly insipid characters and a wet rag of a script, which had a sense of emotional and psychological shallowness (the director and scriptwriter, for whom this was his debut feature, had worked in advertisement, and it shows). Luca Zingaretti, in the role of their friend who becomes a priest, was probably the most noteworthy performer here - this movie left me hoping that I shall soon see him in a movie and character that he can really sink his teeth into.
Possibly the single most irritating thing about this movie was the soundtrack, following every single scene like a bad smell. There it was, constantly, constantly, constantly playing in the background - at one point I even considered switching off the sound altogether and watching it with the subtitles on: it was that annoying! I don't recommend this movie, unless you have only seen about a dozen movies in your entire life.
