My reaction to viewing this film is one that suggests that a missed opportunity took place because what could have been a potentially fascinating film instead turned out to be something that quickly loses steam. Story is about 12 year old Caterina Iocovoni (Alice Teghil) who moves from the small town of Montaldo Di Castro to Rome where her father Giancarlo (Sergio Castellitto) grew up. Giancarlo is a frustrated accounting teacher who hates his job and dreams of being a writer but perceives that his lack of success comes from society itself.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Once Caterina enters school she discovers that her class is divided into two main cliques with one side being the radical left intellectual socialists while the other side is the spoiled reactionary industrialist fascists. Caterina first becomes friends with Margherita (Carolina Iaquaniello) who usually buries herself in her bedroom and lights incense but when she shows herself to be too passionate about affairs it forces Caterina to keep her distance. She then becomes friendly with the incredibly rich and spoiled Daniela (Federica Sbrenna) who's father is an important politician but she proves to be shallow and inconsiderate and it leaves Caterina out of both loops. Meanwhile, Giancarlo tries to use all of his daughters friends in an attempt to get their parents to read his unpublished novel but while he's busy embarrassing himself his wife Agata (Margherita Buy) is having an affair with an old friend.
This is directed by Paolo Virzi and the general premise of his film is pretty interesting with young Caterina discovering the cultural schisms of Italian society but I felt that what Virzi wanted to say was said about halfway through with the remainder of his film becoming labored. The performances are solid with Teghil showing enough wide eyed innocence to make her character believable but the film also gives Castellitto another opportunity to prove that's he's one of Europe's finest character actors. Along with the script dragging towards the end I also had a sense that the film has a strong disdain for Rome itself and wanted to show that true happiness is found only in small communities which isn't a bad perspective but I had a feeling that this was used just as an excuse for the characters actions. I certainly didn't dislike this film and it does take an admirable stab at something that's culturally significant (are you listening Hollywood?) but the film as a whole makes it's point early enough and than ultimately becomes tiresome going down the stretch.
*****SPOILER ALERT***** Once Caterina enters school she discovers that her class is divided into two main cliques with one side being the radical left intellectual socialists while the other side is the spoiled reactionary industrialist fascists. Caterina first becomes friends with Margherita (Carolina Iaquaniello) who usually buries herself in her bedroom and lights incense but when she shows herself to be too passionate about affairs it forces Caterina to keep her distance. She then becomes friendly with the incredibly rich and spoiled Daniela (Federica Sbrenna) who's father is an important politician but she proves to be shallow and inconsiderate and it leaves Caterina out of both loops. Meanwhile, Giancarlo tries to use all of his daughters friends in an attempt to get their parents to read his unpublished novel but while he's busy embarrassing himself his wife Agata (Margherita Buy) is having an affair with an old friend.
This is directed by Paolo Virzi and the general premise of his film is pretty interesting with young Caterina discovering the cultural schisms of Italian society but I felt that what Virzi wanted to say was said about halfway through with the remainder of his film becoming labored. The performances are solid with Teghil showing enough wide eyed innocence to make her character believable but the film also gives Castellitto another opportunity to prove that's he's one of Europe's finest character actors. Along with the script dragging towards the end I also had a sense that the film has a strong disdain for Rome itself and wanted to show that true happiness is found only in small communities which isn't a bad perspective but I had a feeling that this was used just as an excuse for the characters actions. I certainly didn't dislike this film and it does take an admirable stab at something that's culturally significant (are you listening Hollywood?) but the film as a whole makes it's point early enough and than ultimately becomes tiresome going down the stretch.