Schwimmen mochte ich noch nie

Great debut, the one of Kim Rossi Stuart as a director, without pathetic scenes, tough and with no sappy concessions to an impossible happy end. A true world described with a true language and a deep tenderness, but knowing that certain situations allow very little tenderness to those who live them. A world seen through the bright, deep and severe eyes of a wonderful boy who is the focus of his family, the benchmark for his sister, the "strong man" both his mom and his dad need for different reasons, unsettled and insecure as they are. For the people living outside Italy who saw or have to see this movie, the world described in it is our world so don't go looking for some kind of "Kramer vs. Kramer" calm and aseptic atmosphere, here.

There are plenty of beautiful moments in the movie, but one would be enough to love it and it's when the father and his children come back home one evening, Tommi raises his eyes and he sees their house's windows: it's dark, no light. In the lift, he whispers: "The lights were off", mom has gone away again, he thinks without saying it. The look that father and son exchange is so intense, their desperation so palpable that it takes your breath away. I repeat, this scene would be enough. But there's much, much more.

Kim is relaxed, acting and directing beautifully, fantastic debut as a first time director. He has somehow managed to achieve with Alessandro Morace the kind of performance from a child that does not exist anymore. Children in current films have become insufferable, overacting, distracting hammy, annoying elements in film today. Though now that I have said it I realize they are not much different than the adults. All the actors in this film were excellent, the story compelling and it is the first time I have ever seen a character, like my own father, portrayed so perfectly on film and also the reactions of the child. I understood the characters in this film so well that it was unbearably painful for me to watch.

Through a look at the life of a crumbling lower middle class family in Rome, first-time director Kim Stuart Rossi takes a surprisingly honest look at a number of issues, like divorce, and the role of males in contemporary Western European society. The movie is true to life in the best sense: the characters are very similar to people you know. Rossi Stuart also stars in the movie, playing a single father, living precariously as a cameraman, and having to take care of a young son and a teenage daughter (his irresponsible wife is in and out of the house, as the son explains to a rich neighbor and friend). The movie is shown through the eyes of the shy son, but I think the real protagonist is the father, a great dramatic creation of actor-director Rossi. He is a man with an explosive temper, always getting into trouble and thinking the whole world is against him, but he is not a bad person per se; it's just that his hyper masculine values seem to hold less and less value in today's society. Barbora Bolubova, playing the troubled wife, is also very fine. The end is a bit despairing, though as he says in the end, he has been down before, but has always bounced back.

I think this debut by Kim Rossi Stuart is the true best Italian movie of the season 2005/2006. It's even better than "Romanzo criminale" (Michele Placido) and "Il Caimano" (Nanni Moretti). It's so touching and subtle it doesn't seem a debut, but we must remind that Kim Rossi Stuart was already quite experienced as an actor.

The acting is phenomenal. Alessandro Morace (the lone Tommi) is the best child actor I've ever seen: he's natural, and he has got magnificent, sad eyes who can talk more than a speech. And Marta Nobili (the joyful Tommi's sister, Viola) doesn't confine herself to simper graciously as Dakota Fanning usually does. Kim Rossi Stuart and Barbora Bobulova are good too, but they were only confirmations.

Cinematography and score are accurate and remarkable, considering that this film's budget was very small.

And, let me say, Kim Rossi Stuart doing the ironing wearing only a pair of slips and a close-fitting T-shirt is a fantastic sight.

Tommi, 11 years old, lives with his older sister Viola and his father Renato. At the beginning of the film we don't know where Stefania, their mother, is; but she appears again, and, even we came to know that in the past she hasn't been able to stay in the family and grow up her children, this time it seems she came to stay. Viola is happy, Tommi is more skeptical. Time will tell who was right. "Libero" is a defensive soccer player who doesn't have a specific opponent; Tommi, who is a very good swimmer but doesn't like to swim, at the end of the film says "Anche libero va bene" ("Even libero is OK"), when finally his father agrees to send him to a soccer school, even he'd better be a midfielder. This is a difficult film, dealing with the over-discussed family subject in an ordinary, but still very different way, aided by a superb interpretation of all the four leading characters, with a special mention for the first-time-on-screen Alessandro Morace as Tommi. Barbora Bobulova could be the best Italian actress if she was born in Italy (but we adopt her with great pleasure), and Kim Rossi Stuart, for his debut as director, is also convincing as Renato, even if he had to substitute at the last moment Sergio Rubini, who was the original choice. Probably the best Italian film of 2006.