Viuuulentemente mia

What a great miss for those who cannot speak (or better, listen) Italian... Abatantuono's linguistic and dialectal inventions are really a great fun! As usual though, the story is pretty silly, the acting quite awful (especially the mother of Laura Antonelli). But every time I see Abatantuono, I start laughing, as his look and the way he moves is already hilarious. Obviously there are many great moments, all depending on Abatantuono's lines, particularly in the restaurant and along his trip back from Spain... So if you like Abatantuono, do not miss this movie, as it is one of his (of the early period) best! Later on Abatantuono will prove to be also a great dramatic actor, playing more serious parts (Mediterraneo, Io non ho paura, etc.)

Let's face it: this movie is really bad. Almost everything about it is bad: acting: let's change the subject; photography: it seems like they don't know what it is; directing: amateurish; story: terrible; script: damn, some nice jokes, but nothing special.

I haven't seen it in almost 10 years. And that's the problem. I remember everything about it. So I came to ask to myself: how can a movie so bad be so much stuck into someone's memory?

Well, than probably the movie isn't so bad. Or at least, it's not so bad for me, considering that I'm Italian so I can "apreciate" most of the situations and jokes.

It should deserve a 2, or maximum a 3. I gave it a 6.

Italian comedian Diego Abatantuono's trademark was his unique way of speaking: A strange southern slang full of puns, grinded words, in a fascinating and funny way of pronunciation. In the early 80ies he celebrated multiple box office successes. Already the title of the 1982 "Viuuulentemente mia" indicates where this comedy is aiming at.

Due to tax fraud, the rich banker Anna (Laura Antonelli) must leave Italy immediately. On the run to the airport, dopey Roman poliziotto Achille (Abatantuono) causes her car to crash, but totally unaware, he even helps her to reach the plane. After resurfacing in Spain, Anna is caught by local police, and Achille heads over to bring her back home. It will be a wild odyssey from Spain to Ibiza, to Corsica and finally to Italy, with the resourceful Anna trying all to gain time and to escape from Achille…

This is a quite funny comedy with some adventure elements that can avoid boredom for the most part thanks to its fast pacing and variety of funny situations. It is easy entertainment that doesn't need too much complexity to the characters or to the plot in order to work. The humor is on a reasonable level and avoids cheap gags, at least for the most part. It's clearly geared towards Abatantuono and his extreme verbal acrobatics, which gave me a very hard time and I'm sure I missed a lot of gags. Dubbed versions of his movies are scarce and I have no clue how to localize this adequately.

Laura Antonelli is the elegant and beautiful, but also deceitful counterpart Anna who slowly but surely falls in love with Achille. Next to Abatantuono she doesn't have too much room for development, but the two actually make quite a good couple. An ugly hillbilly cop and a sexy glamor lady - the contrast couldn't be much higher, and that's always what makes things interesting.

Overall, if you like Abatantuono's comedic style, this one is well worth a watch, and native speakers can certainly add one or two points to my rating.