L'amico di famiglia

With only 6 full-length feature films under his belt Paolo Sorrentino has already established himself as one of the cinema's greatest stylists. Indeed, I think Sorrentino will turn out to be one of the great directors and not just in his native Italy. His first foray into English, "This Must Be The Place", was an extraordinary American road- movie and a very worthy addition to both that genre and to those visions of America, (and in that particular case, Ireland as well), as seen through the eyes of an outsider. "The Family Friend" was his third film and it, too, is astonishing. It's about a loan shark, the thoroughly despicable Geremia, (a wonderful performance from Giacomo Rizzo), who could have come straight from the pages of a Dickens novel and, though himself in middle-age, lives with his ancient, bed-ridden mother and is on the look-out for a wife or at least a woman. He is a man who takes no prisoners and is certainly not the kind of man you would like to cross. Then one day he meets Rosalba, the daughter of a couple who have borrowed money from him to pay for her wedding, and he is smitten, even though she despises him. This is a dark and very funny film; a variation on "Beauty and the Beast" where the beast really is a beast, a "Phantom of the Opera" where the phantom is as hideous on the inside as he is on the outside, told in the same gloriously broad strokes that Sorrentino has brought to all his films. Critics have compared him to Fellini, (and his most recent film, "The Great Beauty", is a "La Dolce Vita" for the 21st century), but Sorrentino is much too original a talent to be compared to anyone and "The Family Friend" is a true original. Right now I think the only director turning out movies this good, on such a consistent basis, is Paul Thomas Anderson. For starters, they both share the same sense of the absurd though when it comes to the use of music in his movies I think Sorrentino has the edge on all his competitors.

Even if the character of the protagonist is chiseled good enough to make you feel awkward, ot is too much effort put to into doing that and too little time spent on making a working plot. It's obvious that the film lack all evidence of any intention to provide a logic to the audience even if there could have bern, cutting some 30 minutes of the build-up, and adding something instead that builds the story and the characters...the end is stressed and lack all the necessary emotional and logical build-up that could have changed this turkey into a sustainable film...in the end the only feeling remaining is that someone stole your time leaving you with nothing...

This film is not the great piece of cinema many critics/ viewers seem to think it is or want it to be. It has the occasional effective moment/ sequence, and the use of sub-bass was quite original and evocative in the sound mix. However, it's essentially trying to be an art-house film with enough mainstream/generic or light-hearted moments to appeal to your average non-art-house-watching, can't-handle-it-too-grim-or-arty cinema goer. Therefore, it's hugely flawed. It's not really that dark, for instance, despite a bit of dark posturing, and the more likable/ morally "okay" characters win out in the film's irritatingly moral conclusion. The bonding between the bingo-playing old bat and the cowboy sidekick was almost sickening, and was completely unnecessary if the film wanted to maintain a vaguely black/amoral tone (which it did initially appear to be striving for). I personally find the Coen brother's work to combine humour and a an enjoyably surreal darkness far more effectively, and to maintain a more amoral tone. It does not bare comparison to Fellini at all, for one thing there's none of that crazy visual bravura in the mis-en-scene here, and most of time and there's a deeply middle-brow quality to narrative proceedings. Unlike the great Italian films of 60s/ 70s (Visconti, Antonioni etc) the film is quite uninterestingly shot most of the time, with an overuse of extreme close-ups and close-ups, and with a very standard sense of pace in the editing. To be honest, even Dario Argento is far more visually exciting.

The inclusion of the thriller plot towards the end of film simply does not work that well, and feels contrived and somewhat unengaging: the film suddenly decides it no longer wishes to be a slightly arty character-study of a despicable old money lender and tries to be David Mamet to get the audience "on the edge of their seats" - it had the opposite effect for me ultimately. The supporting characters are rubbish - the cowboy friend is like something out of a bad "quirky" short film and the super model girl has no *beep* personality at all... The old woman who's addicted to bingo? God, it's almost Father Ted territory and without the madcap humour or silliness to make such stereotypes genuinely funny.

Some of the music was quite well-used however, and it is still better than another moving/ funny film about the Holocaust or films about small boys and their relationships with wise old men who work in cinemas.

Didn't manage to make it to the end of the film and was left with a feeling of disgust. There is no real plot line, it is essentially just a sequence of scenes picturing this squalid man behaving inappropriately towards different women. Additionally this is pieced together in a try-hard way to try making the film artsy which the film does not accomplish.

L'amico di famiglia / Paolo Sorrentino (2006) A repulsive loan shark, as greedy and unpleasant as one can get, faces the consequences of love. Visually extremely beautiful, with a very cool soundtrack, great performances (Bentivoglio with a Venetian accent???) and a plot that grows minute after minute. I liked this film very much and I was so sad to read the other reviews on IMDb because it's obvious nobody understood it. You can say Sorrentino is Brothers Coen with a heart, to make it very simple: but to read people who still unearth poor old Fellini every time they watch an Italian film it's gut wrenching. Filmed in real location (Latina, Sabaudia and the so-called Agro Pontino were mostly built during Mussolini's dictatorship with the peculiar "fascist" style that make them so unpleasant and cinematic at the same time) and with mostly unknown actors Sorrentino takes his risk in the last part of the movie and doesn't really make it right, but it's a minor flaw that only the "Murder she wrote" fans can be disappointed by. There are some things in common with former Sorrentino's film "Le conseguenze dell'amore": a man who gave up his life (and his dignity) for the sake of money has to come to terms with the unwanted feelings of love (not simply love for a woman but love for a different life, a friend, beauty, freedom, himself). I recommend this film strongly as long as you're an open-minded person and you can get a good translation, if you're not Italian.