La Sicilienne

Rita Mancuso's father is beloved Don Michele in Balata, Sicily. He orders the death of Bellafiore who murdered innocent peasants. A prosecutor arrives to confront him but the villagers support the Don rather than the corrupt incompetent police. Six years later, Rita is 17 and the village is awash with drugs. Her brother Carmelo gets killed and Rita brings in her evidence to the prosecutor who actually got her father's respect. She testifies against the Sicilian mob as revenge for her family's murders.

The story is somewhat muddled. Veronica D'Agostino is good as the fierce heroine. She isn't a pretty little thing but she has a nice vulnerability. Gérard Jugnot is also good. The material is there but the intensity is dispersed. The tension comes and goes. This should be a great character study of the Girl but the final ending should not be as confused.

Sicily and mafia. It would be a first thought an average person would have, however unjust or unfair it might be. " The Sicilian Girl" is a strange, a bit clunky movie, torn between the court drama and passionate bloody opera. The medieval, macabre, isolated world of rural Sicily, with its outdated sense of honor and codes of conduct, that nobody else would understand or relate to. The heroine of this movie is a strong willed, privileged young woman, trying to avenge the death of her father and brother. Gradually, she manages to accept the fact that they both, were criminals, like the people she hated. The movie is missing something hard to explain,firmer shape, and there is a bad choice of casting the unfortunate leading actress prone to overacting.

Rita Mancuso, 11, born in Sicily gets the afflictive experience of watching her father, respected Don Michele shot by a rival mafia family. This inflicts greater incorrigible wound in her heart thus insisting on execution of her fathers criminals out of the reputation and weight her regal family carried. 7 years later when the plan hatched by her brother to avenge their father's death goes futile resulting in the murder of brother, she offers her help to law to satisfy her personal vendetta. From here on follows the story of Rita raging a war against the mafia based on true story.

Languishing in my hard disk for over a year I finally caught up with this Italian/Sicilian movie. The movie shot in picturesque Italy with distinctive roads, artistic houses and Corleone-esq feel is symbolical of the situation at the time. The movie premise is 1985-92 during which there was collective negligence by the government towards the region and hence it culminated the dominance of Don mafia.According to the true events I read later, the movie for most part stays true to the events occurred in reality. Although there isn't much startling about the movie or it's revelations, its intriguing to trace the path of a lone girl against a huge empire. What's also very interesting is the development of Rita in the movie, as she is shown a egoistical, domineering proud Sicilian at first. When she approaches the law to punish the mafia, she tells them she is offering her services and not asking for help. She is shown as this fiery character who listens to nobody as fixes on the notion that she should carry forward her great family legacy and avenge the murder. Later when the things comes to light about her family, she finds it difficult to understand her existence, she thinks the prosecutor is the only guy who understands her. This transformation of Rita is what I found most enjoyable, yet it had it's shortcomings.

The one major flaw of the movie was the cast, for me the role of Rita needed extreme aggressiveness and had to be overtly bold. Here in some parts the actress Veronica D'Agostino lacked/underplayed the portrayal. Also the aforementioned actresses either never looked 17(character age) or Sicilian age suspiciously faster. The supporting cast of Gérard Jugnot,Lucia Sardo played their role according to the story. Also I liked the small scene shot outside Colosseum.

A very interesting movie and a definite watch if you have two minds about it.

Only because more people will have seen "Veronica Guerin," I cite that splendid film as an introduction to "The Sicilian Girl." The themes are similar -- true stories of young women who invite death by exposing murderous activities. In this case, Rita Atrria (Veronica D'Agostino), a 17 year old from a Sicilian village controlled by the Mafia, takes her story, documented by diaries she has been keeping for many years, to an anti-Mafia prosecutor, Paolo Borsellino (Gerard Jugnot) seeking vengeance for the murder of her father and brother, both of whom were themselves members of the Mafia. Rita's diaries confirm incidents which the police have tracked and lead to the arrest of her town's Mafia chieftains, including the ones who had her father and brother killed. To avoid spoiling the story, I will offer no more of the details except to say that Rita's revelations make both her and Borsellino targets for assassination. Ms. D'Agostino and Mr. Jugnot are excellent actors, and a number of other roles are very well done. The movie is exciting and well worth the two hours it takes to watch it. As with any of the movies based on a "true" story, one is left wondering where truth leaves off and fiction takes over. I can guess at the juncture, but for the most part "The Sicilian Girl" is very convincing.

One of the reviewers (from Minneapolis) said "bad choice of casting the leading actress prone to overacting." Nope. Growing in a NY Neapolitan/Sicilian neighborhood, I didn't see her overacting. That's just the way my BFFs were. Dramatic. Passionate. Over the top. I found her performance an honest portrayal. (And laughed at the scene where the cop buys her colorful clothes, b/c everyone in NY, Sicilian or not...wears black.) PS: My family visited Sicily the year this trial took place. I remember the guards w/Uzis both out side the Palace of Justice and in the airport.

And I'd give this movie an 8.5.