Folles de joie

One of the key players of current Italian cinema, Paolo Virzì's newest offering LIKE CRAZY brings audience to the sun-drenched Toscana, where nestles a home for the mentally unstable (a picturesque mise-en-scène peppered with creditable employees and patients), there we meet Beatrice (Tedeschi), a motormouth screwball who can compulsively babble on and on as long as she can find an audience, and Donatella (Ramazzotti, Ms. Virzì in real life), a diffident introvert masked by her tattoo-embroidered body and punk appearance, who is ailed by depression and a tendency of violence.

Beatrice befriends the newly arrived Donatella, who becomes the newest recipient of her predominantly one-sided pattering, but Beatrice also reciprocally brings a pint of energy into Donatella's colorless life, for the clinical aspect, they transmit salutary influences on each other, a defining vindication of the existence of such communal facilities. One day, during a field day, when their pick-up is late, Beatrice impulsively dashes to a bus with Donatella tagging along, against others' opposition, hence the duo embarks on a journey fueled by spontaneous decisions and devil-might-care drollness, if not wholly realistic, a similar mode of Ridley Scott's THELMA AND LOUSIE (1991) except that there will be no place for body count and radical feminist manifesto to temper Virzì's well wrought combo of farce and drama.

The onus of farcical bombast is aptly falls upon the shoulders of Ms. Tedeschi, and it is pretty much up her alley to conjure up an inexorably flamboyant character takes no prisoners in her maniacal loquacity, verbally challenges, needles, assaults everyone she meets or around her, which sometimes feels too specific for an Italian-speaking context, her "crazyness" is unequivocally the driven force of the duo's on-the-run caper, but at moments when sensibility and sagacity is required, e.g. during the conversation with the foster parents of Donatella's son, she can also function as a qualified interlocutor who is not self-absorbed and eloquent enough to make her points clear. Yes, Donatella has a toddler son which she has to forsake due to her unwell conditions, and it is through Donatella's back-story, where clichéd scenario of a woman buffeted by unworthy parents, atrocious sleazes and a traumatic severance between a mother and her son hits all the notes, life renders her completely helpless and disillusioned, but even so, miraculously, buoyed up by Beatrice's undimmed vivacity and "craziness", eventually Donatello procures a glimpse of hope in the faintly mawkish encounter with her unwitting tot, to predictably affix a non-confrontational ending to this ostensibly rebellious yarn against bureaucracy, authority, patriarchy and the Establishment.

Both actresses register impressive performances albeit the script isn't always coruscating with golden ideas, Tedeschi dominates in her unfettered oomph and gumption while Ramazzoti diametrically sears in her distressed transmogrification, but it is the former's all-out flair entrances audience, not just being a brazen laughing-stock, underneath Beatrice's grandiloquent veneer, there lies a dysfunctional human being dragged into neurosis and illusion through her own dopiness and those inimical exterior forces, from this regard, both are nevertheless victims on similar grounds, but ultimately, it seems, Virzì consciously cops out to unleash its sociological critique and instead, sends a more anodyne message of a circular conclusion without disturbing the status quo.

I found this film by accident and did not regret a moment watching it. Depression is a maladies of our times. Of the modern society. As well as bipolar disorder, these are some illnesses that people frown upon or are reluctant to discuss.

This movie depicts the effects of these diseases and shows more than one inconvenient truths. Balancing between the world of the ill and the real life, it shows how it is to live with a sickness like that and how little distance exists between these people and the ones that are considered healthy.

The leading actors were breathtaking. Being able to act as a bipolar in such a way is not an easy task. This movie has lessons in store for everyone that is interested in seeing what these people go through. And as far as statistics go, you probably have some people in your midst that deal or have dealt with similar issues.

This is not an easy movie. Don't get fooled by the "comedy" genre. It has some comic moments but it's mostly a punch in the stomach if you're up to the task of watching it.

What a poor, non-requested and superficial rating from @dierregi; although the best thing about this platform is that everyone can express themselves, is so sad to read that. I advice to take @dierregi's review as an example : approach yourself to this movie in the opposite way!!! This is something about depression, loneliness, the fear of being unable to be back to a "normal life", the lack of consciousness about being unstable but also the great power of realizing it (see one of the last scene when Donatella confesses Beatrice, and herself too, what happened). This is also something about forgiveness, about giving a second chance and being mentally opened and ready to face reality, even if it's cruel, terrible, frightful. This is about a very difficult social phenomenon as well as a great lesson of embracing and not refusing.

"A joyful madness" would have been a better translation for the international market. Such a surprisingly good film. Well, not entirely surprising because Paolo Virzì, from Tuscany, currently one of Italy's best directors, his movies always centred around interesting, well defined characters, masterfully mixing comedy and drama, in this case with heart breaking results. It helps that this screenplay has been written together with talented screenwriter and director Francesca Archibugi who, amongst other things, in 1990 directed Italian movie icon Marcello Mastroianni in the drama "Verso sera" (Towards Evening). Her contribution to this film must be acknowledged. The two leading actresses are excellent. Micaela Ramazzotti as the desperate mother who, amongst all sort of troubles, tries to get back in contact with her only son. Even better is Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who is absolutely amazing as Donatella, the rich countess who struggles to cope with her mental disorders but who takes the younger Beatrice under her wing. When they run away from the psychiatric facility they are placed in by the authorities (perfectly depicted in typical human but caothic way) their foolish adventure begin. Such an intense, moving, touching film. Highly recommended.

I consider myself a fan of Paolo Virzì movies and this one did not disappoint me. And yet, I always come back with that feeling that he seems to be always just a step away from an accomplished masterpiece. Like Crazy easily passes the minimum threshold of getting one involved and watch it to the end, in fact more than that. At 2 hours it's a longish movie whose end arrives sooner than expected. There's however something not quite fully realized in it, might it be the cutting, the repetition of certain schemes, the un-natural behavior of some of the characters. It's a bit like a poem where a few rhymes don't quite rhyme or the hidden meaning doesn't quite come through. The acting is certainly not to be faulted: if this were a Hollywood movie, Micaela Ramazzotti would have undoubtedly qualified for an Oscar nomination. Bruni Tedeschi is great too but a bit over the top here and there. A better cutting would have been a great help, too as some themes are a bit repetitive. Taking away some 5 or 10 minutes would have greatly improved the flowing of the narration. What can I say, I appreciate everything Virzì has done so far, he's surely a great director but I'm still expecting and betting that his best has yet to come.