Il mio miglior nemico

I really enjoyed this movie. The humor was a bit absent at times but I enjoyed how the story moved between dramatic and serious throughout the film. This is the only the second movie where I saw Verdone acting (the other was 'Un sacco bello'), and I can see why Italians find him tiresome, but he think he played his role well as the loving father.

My one drawback with this movie was that I knew it took place in Italy - somewhere in the center or south, I presume, but I felt like there was no representation of a place. This movie could have taken place in New York, Boston, Melbourne, New Dehli...I always think it is important for movies to have a place to give the viewers something to relate to. (Maybe I missed something?) :) If you like Italian films, then I think that you will enjoy this. It's not a Fellini or a Rossellini - it's not realism or neo-realism. It's a comical story with serious moments that could really happen to any of us.

As the two leaders of this Italian comedy, one is the director and another is the co-writer, one can speculate that the self-involved commitment is much stronger and the intentions of capturing comedy with plus little dramatic touch is overt. But the outcome is a little bit as expected.

I have to say that it is quite easy to love this film from its slapstick beginning, then with its mainline gradually unveiling, the story becomes cheap, luckily as far as the Italian humor remains, it is still enjoyable.

Comedy is the most difficult genre to make for a film especially with an ambition of being universal. One has to omit a lot of distinguishing features to meet the tastes from different cultural backgrounds, which in my opinion is easier to achieve (for example by making the story conventional as what this film did), it gains more audience meanwhile loses much more admiration.

The acting is unbalanced, I totally enjoy the performance of Carlo Verdone (also the director of this film), but others are banal, young actors need experience and training.

I cannot blame too much of this film for not being great, as there are tons of shameless garbage comedies everywhere, even in the still developing Chinese film market, which are much worse than this one.

If there was a laughter-counter at present while we were watching this film, this film could be qualified for the amount of funny moments, although it is uneven, or maybe the fact is that our thresholds of laughing are lowered.

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i liked this movie a lot.I rented this expecting something not too bad to spend an evening.It turned out a particularly satisfying experience. Some scenes were hilarious and managed to be so in a movie not intended to be just a stupid slapstick comedy but with some meaning and moral values.It manages on both counts.The leads are all good but especially the guy who stars,also wrote and produced the movie.I've never seen any of these actors before, but they were likable and made me care about what happens to them in the end which is saying a lot.The script is clever and involving and has a refreshing feel to it. I think you wont be disappointed to watch this.

Carlo Verdone once managed to combine superb comedy with smart and subtle social analysis and criticism.

Then something happened, and he turned into just another dull "holier-than-thou" director.

Il Mio Miglior Nemico can more or less be summarized in one line "working class = kind and warm, while upper-class = snob and devious. But love wins in the end".

Such a trite clichè for such a smart director.

There isn't really too much to talk about in the movie. Every character is a walking stereotype: the self-made-man who forgets his roots but who'll become "good" again, the scorned wife, the rebellious rich girl who falls for the honest-but-poor guy... Acting is barely average.

Severely disappointing under every aspect.

With this film producer Aurelio de Laurentiis intended to do something similar to the Italian comedy classic "In viaggio con papà" (1982): put together a well known, veteran actor (in that case Alberto Sordi, in this one Verdone)and a young, promising one (in the first one Verdone himself, in this one Silvio Muccino, brother of director Gabriele), to appeal to two different generations. Even if the film is going strong at Italian box office the operation is only partly successful. Verdone stars, directs and is also author of the script. The plot is a bit messy, as the film starts as a slapstick comedy with some touch of family drama and suddenly turns to road movie. The script is average, not particularly clever nor as hilarious as Verdone's first movies, but with some funny, good lines. As for the acting performances, Verdone's is top notch, showing what a truly great actor he is, while Muccino has much to learn, and even if he has a nice screen presence, in some dramatic scenes he's still inadequate. On the whole the film is pleasant, with a good, heartwarming ending; it's not an unforgettable classic, but still better than Verdone's latest, bad films, like "Ma che colpa abbiamo noi" and "L'amore è eterno finchè dura". My rating is: 6.5/10