Rãmâi cu mine

Beautifully shot soap opera. Fairly predictable, boilerplate script. The only acting I've seen here is done by Lucian Ifrim, Monica Ciuta, Antonia Ionescu and Cosmina Stratan. Not bad for a soap opera. I give this movie two stars: one for photography and one for the lovely soundtrack by Byron.

At the beginning of this series I was surprised by its tone, cinematography and natural acting. Now that the enthusiasm has faded, its soapy character creeps in and affects the plot with several commonplace day-drama themes (search for unknown parent, love vs. duty, secret relationships, and other almost unreal qui-pro-quos).

The characters are in some respect alike, representing a sort of middle-class (at least for Romanian standards) and rather educated professionals, with their affairs and family matters. Still, the charm and good acting, mainly of Iulia Lumanare and Andi Vasluianu, make the show worth watching.

And first of all, the quality of the opening titles sequence, together with its music, and of the inserts with beautiful city shots draws our attention to the real and hidden beauty around us, despite any everyday drama and despite our hurried and biased derogatory view on Bucharest or any other urban milieu.

The series is based on an Israeli format, so, not knowing the original, I can't say how creative or well adapted is this Romanian version, I just judged it for itself. As it's still on, hopefully it will save the day until the end and won't solve everything in soap opera style.