O Vulcão Ginostra

Dramas over two hours in length generally fall into two camps - they either have an epic story to tell, full of deep characterisations, complex plots and stunning backdrops, or they stink. Ginostra falls with aplomb into the latter category.

Never has so little happened of such little note in such a long time. If this were not bad enough, never have actors of the calibre of Harvey Keitel and Andie MacDowell delivered such clunky dialogue with such haste and apparent lack of skillful direction or editing.

The likes of Osment and Radcliffe have little to worry about from Mattia De Martino, who plays the son of a chef to the mob who is his immediate family's sole survivor following a car bombing. Keitel is the FBI agent on the case and he and his wife MacDowell base themselves near the island of Ginostra, the site of the bombing, while he tries to pump the child for information.

There is some innuendo between Keitel and Francesca Neri, who plays the wife of the local officer chasing the mob, who in turn appears to fancy MacDowell. Nothing actually materialises, which is the film's major problem - it's quite miserable and very dull. Misery is not necessarily a bad thing in itself, but with nothing else to grab hold of, it's all a bit much.

I saw it at the Toronto Film Festival. It sounded good on paper: Harvey Keitel plays a F.B.I. agent protecting the son of a murdered informant in Italy and Andie McDowell is his wife. I like Harvey Keitel but it felt like he was sleep walking through this film. There was no chemistry between him and Andie McDowell and she seemed more like window dressing than a solid female character. The film was slow and didn't lead to anywhere. You couldn't get into the characters and didn't care about them either way. Some of the Italian scenery was interesting but couldn't compensate for the weak script and poor editing.

There is little to add to the other comments about this lengthy bore with its handsome images of an erupting volcano and lovely villas, its bad continuity, lack of chemistry between MacDowell and Keitel, generally wooden or uncoordinated acting, meandering, incomprehensible plot with an illogical set up (FBI man takes wife and kid to a dangerous assignment) and its preposterously heroic 11-year-old boy (let's not be too hard on newcomer Mattia De Martino: he does his best to impersonate a tough, angry kid; his acting is more convincing than Keitel's). I do want to mention something that drew me to rent the DVD besides the combination of Keitel, Harry Dean, and Asia Argento, and the fact that Pradal's first (and previous) film, 'Marie baie des anges' (1997) is haunting and evocative and original and 'stunningly beautiful' (Stephen Holden, NYTimes). This is the fact that Tonino Benacquista worked on the screenplay. Benaquista has been a fantastic collaborator with Jacques Audiard on 'Sur mes lèvres' ('Read My Lips') and 'De battre mon coeur s'est arreté' ('The Beat My Heart Skipped'). Well, Benacquista's talents did not help here any more than anybody else's. His participation may have been limited. He is more permanently listed on Pradal's subsequent (2006) 'Un crime'('A Crime'), which has gotten higher marks, and I'm curious to see that. Apparently it has just come out in a US DVD (July 2009) so it will eventually be available for rental. I haven't given up, because 'Marie baie des anges' is an experience one can go back to again and again. If Pradal could make that, he ought to be able to make another good film.

Keitel and McDowell clearly are not comfortable with each other in this film. The dialogues are mechanical and the film is boring. Never have I heard McDowell speak her lines with such a strange accent, and her performance is never convincing in this film. But she's not the only one. Keitel's performance is far below par and so is Harry Dean Stanton's.

"Ginostra" is a huge mess.

The Plot: FBI Agent Matt Benson (Keitel) travels to Italy to help a young boy from the mobsters that killed his family run by Del Piero (Stanton). There's also weird nuns (One of them played by Argento) involved with a volcano.....

From the opening scene the movie has already overstayed it's welcome. The movie is just abrupt and edited terribly. Scenes just start\end with no rhythm. Andie MacDowell has nothing to do, and Argento even less, even with the 2-hour plus running time. The best scene in the movie is the confrontation between Keitel and Stanton. The oddest part of the movie is: (Get ready...) One of the mobsters puts a bomb in a sheep and it blows up. I'm not kidding.

No wonder this movie has been on the shelf for over 5 years. It deserved it. Maybe it should've stayed there longer after some editing.

It's only worth sitting though if you're a Keitel completist. Anybody else stay away. Don't be fooled by the quality cast.

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