Open My Heart

Considering the overt slickness of recent Italian fare such as Last Kiss and Casomai, I guess I should be overjoyed by this. Quick synopsis: Older sister's a hooker, younger sister's 17, never been kissed (well, almost), not let out of the house except to go to dance class, hooker sister helps younger one with Dante, Kepler and the poetry of John Donne. Good start huh? Well, things just get more fun from there, and I won't spoil the noirish, lynchian paths this DV enterprise takes. The sex scenes are more squirmy than erotic, and the director's idea to flash occasionally at Renaissance-period biblical depictions immediately after some sordid event seems an un-subtle moralizing (I'll take my perversions straight, so to speak, and make up my own mind about the moral call later). However, this is Italy, so maybe it was just real nice wallpaper in a corner of the room we didn't see normally.

Not entirely a success, but an interesting first try from the director.

Could supplant Donnie Darko as a midnight movie attraction in a few college towns, but I don't see it making too many best-of lists.