Anche libero va bene

This film is about a family of four and told through the character of Tommi, an 11-year old boy. His sister is a nuisance, and he has trouble getting friends in school.

The mother of the family has some psychological issues and disappears for weeks, then returns for a few weeks of nuclear family bliss.

The father is a poor, stressed out cameraman struggling to find work. He goes from loving and caring role-model-father to angry, rampaging mad in seconds.

The tensions between all four members of the family are really done well, the film is believable and very emotional. Both adults and children in this story give great acting performances.

I think this debut by Kim Rossi Stuart is the true best Italian movie of the season 2005/2006. It's even better than "Romanzo criminale" (Michele Placido) and "Il Caimano" (Nanni Moretti). It's so touching and subtle it doesn't seem a debut, but we must remind that Kim Rossi Stuart was already quite experienced as an actor.

The acting is phenomenal. Alessandro Morace (the lone Tommi) is the best child actor I've ever seen: he's natural, and he has got magnificent, sad eyes who can talk more than a speech. And Marta Nobili (the joyful Tommi's sister, Viola) doesn't confine herself to simper graciously as Dakota Fanning usually does. Kim Rossi Stuart and Barbora Bobulova are good too, but they were only confirmations.

Cinematography and score are accurate and remarkable, considering that this film's budget was very small.

And, let me say, Kim Rossi Stuart doing the ironing wearing only a pair of slips and a close-fitting T-shirt is a fantastic sight.

Great debut, the one of Kim Rossi Stuart as a director, without pathetic scenes, tough and with no sappy concessions to an impossible happy end. A true world described with a true language and a deep tenderness, but knowing that certain situations allow very little tenderness to those who live them. A world seen through the bright, deep and severe eyes of a wonderful boy who is the focus of his family, the benchmark for his sister, the "strong man" both his mom and his dad need for different reasons, unsettled and insecure as they are. For the people living outside Italy who saw or have to see this movie, the world described in it is our world so don't go looking for some kind of "Kramer vs. Kramer" calm and aseptic atmosphere, here.

There are plenty of beautiful moments in the movie, but one would be enough to love it and it's when the father and his children come back home one evening, Tommi raises his eyes and he sees their house's windows: it's dark, no light. In the lift, he whispers: "The lights were off", mom has gone away again, he thinks without saying it. The look that father and son exchange is so intense, their desperation so palpable that it takes your breath away. I repeat, this scene would be enough. But there's much, much more.

I recently saw this at the 2007 Palm Springs International Film Festival and of the 31 films I saw there this film makes my top six. Actor Kim Rossi Stuart makes an impressive directorial debut with this film. Stuart began his acting career as a child actor and probably from that experience he gets the most from his two young actors in the principal cast who are making their acting debuts on film. Stuart casts himself as Renato who is a single father raising a son, Tommi (Allessandro Morace) and a daughter, Viola (Marta Nobili). This is a macho dominated family unit with all the pressure put on Tommi from his father Renato who wants to live his own childhood through Tommi and dominates and supersedes Tommi's own ambitions. Sister Viola kind of gets a free pass to skate through life from Renato. We soon learn that the children's mother Stefania (Barbora Bobulova) is very much alive as she repentantly returns to ask to be once again accepted into the household. She apparently has a history of extra-marital affairs but again in the macho society of this film there is no contesting child custody or the home to live in on her part. Renato has the ultimate say if she can stay or leave and the home and children are his. Both parents obviously love their children but both have emotional problems. Stefania as the straying mother and housewife and Renato who is a fun and creative guy but his broken marriage eats at him and he flares up at the children but also lovingly plays around with them like a kid himself. His do-it-my-way attitude spills out to his work environment also as a freelance film cameraman and causes further problems for him. The title Along the Ridge comes from the building rooftop where Tommi keeps a secret hiding place precariously perched at the edge of a steep roof high above the street below. Good story from Linda Ferri, Francesco Giammusso, Federic Starnone and Stuart with excellent cinematography from Stefano Falivene. I would give this an 8.5 out of 10 and recommend it.

Kim is relaxed, acting and directing beautifully, fantastic debut as a first time director. He has somehow managed to achieve with Alessandro Morace the kind of performance from a child that does not exist anymore. Children in current films have become insufferable, overacting, distracting hammy, annoying elements in film today. Though now that I have said it I realize they are not much different than the adults. All the actors in this film were excellent, the story compelling and it is the first time I have ever seen a character, like my own father, portrayed so perfectly on film and also the reactions of the child. I understood the characters in this film so well that it was unbearably painful for me to watch.