Manual de amor

This is a fine Italian comedy that I would recommend to anyone. The movie is about the several steps of love relationships: falling in love, crisis, infidelity, parting. Each of these four steps is represented by a couple: Muccino-Trinca fall in love, Rubino-Buy are on the verge of disaster, Abbrescia is unfaithful to Littizzetto (and vice versa), while Verdone is mad about losing his woman (but will finally fall in love with another one, thus closing the circle).

The feature is structured in almost separate episodes, which is a reference to many "commedie all'italiana" of the '60s. Nevertheless the stories are ingenuously linked among each other and the writing is so skillful that the movie never loses its pace. Plus, it is very well acted. Verdone and Buy are almost perfect, and so is Littizzetto. (This actress became famous thanks to TV shows, but is actually very good and definitely deserves to play a dramatic role to show how credible she is and how versatile).

Verdone proves brave by accepting a character both ridiculous and tragic. He is a physician who has been abandoned by his wife and tries to re-build his life out of its pieces. Maybe the script is a bit excessive here, as it is not clear whether we have to laugh at or identify with him. Anyway he redeems himself in a beautiful ending almost reminding of "La dolce vita"'s.

The episode that I liked the least is the first. It avoids most of the stupid clichés of Italian comedies for teenagers, but why then all those swearwords? They are just annoying and don't add anything to the story and the characters. Plus, the episode is kind of unrealistic.

Obviously, this is not a revolutionary movie, but it is very funny and, most of all, not spoiled by silly character parts as so many Italian movies are.

A flaw that I feared before watching this movie was stereotypes about love, like men playing tricks on women to conquer them or betrayals with best friends. As a matter of fact the movie is divided into various parts, each one describing a stage of love: falling in love, crisis, betrayal and abandon. The different mini-stories are tied with each other by characters who are somehow related and the end of the movie connects with the beginning as an ideal circle. Despite the same old stories about relationships and developments of love stories, this movie has anyway some good aspects. For example, each actor plays his own repertoire, displaying their qualities in what they do best and for what they're known for. The best sketches, in my opinion,are made by Goffredo, played by Carlo Verdone, and Marco, played by Sergio Rubini, who offer the sense of humor shown in their own movies.

the funniest scenes are in the second story when the couple having difficulties go to visit relatives who have a new baby. The admiration the baby receives is so exaggerated, the disgust . . . well no point in spoiling it. Most of the audience when I went were young Mexicans who were identifying with the characters in the first story but I didn't get hooked until the second one. The problems with parking guards who give fines, arrange for cars to be hauled off etc was probably funnier to the Italian audience but traveled well across the border. The "moral" of the last story was one I wish I'd learned sooner. All in all a very enjoyable evening's entertainment.

It's a very well-made light-hearted, romantic comedy consisting of several small stories sorted out by the different stages of relationships. The stories were told in such a fluid way that you don't feel disturbed by the director's chronically linear view on relationships, although the figures in different stories were connected in a way or another.

The outstanding performances from every actor in this film also makes the everyday love stories naturally telling. Although the audience can share lots of jokes about relationships in this film, I also like that sometimes the actors talked to the audience directly through the camera. This is a skillful technique to get the audience's empathy and involvement.

Brava & carina - this film is surely very entertaining.

I really enjoyed the first novel. Jasmine Trinca is absolutely sexy and smart there. Although, I would not find Tomasa a perfect match to her, he did played very well.

I am surprised that this movie has not received much of attention of critics and media.

I am big fan of Jasmine after this movie. She is the best! Next novels were not so interesting for me, although I did find amusing one scene about pregnancy and the way everybody watched mother delivering a baby in a hospital.

I would recommend watching Manuale Di Amore to everyone.