Come Dio comanda

I saw this film last night at the Italian Film Festival in LA and was deeply disappointed. I'm a huge fan of bleak, minimalist cinema and in theory, this movie, with its hand-held aesthetic, promise of exploring neo-fascism in modern Italy, and dark yet humanist subject matter seemed right up my alley. Turns out I was wrong.

Let's start positively, the cinematography is good, especially a gorgeous scene where the lead kid takes a long walk with a wheelbarrow, but everything else about this movie is so over-the-top, so cheesy and manipulative, so thematically scattered, that it was all I could do not to leave the theater and immediately go watch something else to cleanse my pallet.

Especially heavy-handed are the music cues. Oh my god... unbelievable. Every time the music dropped it was with for such obvious, manipulative purposes that I died a little inside. And I guess the movie's constant references to God and his intent on this earth are supposed to resonate on a deep thematic level, but they don't. It's just more overused trite masquerading as meaning in a film lost in its own pretensions.

I really do enjoy this KIND of movie. But this is a terrible example of it.

The first half of this movie showed so much potential, thanks to the dynamic and precise direction, the amazing cinematography that puts you in the right atmosphere, where light and shadows constantly mix.

And the actors, they are just perfect for their roles!

Filippo Timi manages to show the rage and psychological violence with which he views the world, but also the sincere and precious love towards his son, who is so immature but firm in his decisions on how to live his still young life, especially when it comes to his first crush.

And above all, the always excellent Elio Germano as their poor friend both mentally and physically upset, that becomes the true center of all the story's deviations.

All goes on so well, 'til the second half, when suddenly all the pain, all the conflicts and the growth path of the characters start to fade, everything becomes very superficial, and the most important elements are solved way too quickly and easily.

It leaved me with a strong sense of incompleteness, and that is sincerely a big disappointment for me. But not too big to not appreciate the strong benefits.

My suggestion is to watch it anyway, and decide for yourself, but still, be ready to come out of it a bit disappointed, even if there are way worse movies out there, and this is definitely not one of those.

"Come Dio Comanda" arrives in theaters after the big success of Niccolò Ammaniti's bestseller. Academy-Award winner Gabriele Salvatores creates a beautiful, powerful movie out of that already strong and disturbing story. The director's approach to the movie (always using hand-held camera) seems to create more a documentary than a standard thriller-drama, as if we were INTO the story, next to the characters, into the woods under the rain. The actors are excellent: Filippo Timi and young Alvaro Caleca do a believable and forceful job as Rino and Cristiano Zena. Their performances, full of anger and love, really support the entire story. Elio Germano create the best character of his career, a nearly lovable and sympathetic 'full', an innocent child trapped in the body of a man into a dark and corrupted world. Good job also by supporting cast: Angelica Leo, thoroughly believable as Fabiana and the funny part of Fabio De Luigi. Tech credits are also outstanding: Italo Petriccione's cinematography is surely going to win all the new season awards and prizes. Even better than his already excellent job in 'Io Non ho Paura'. The editing, fast, full of jump-cuts, the music score, modern, sincere, the real soul of the characters, the settings... The best scene? Probably the finale, the most moving scene of the entire movie.

I was a bit skeptical about a new adaptation from Ammaniti's novels by Salvatores, who directed before the lucky "Io Non Ho Paura", but then I felt rather satisfied sitting at the cinema watching this impressive movie. The book itself was written in a very cinematographic way, almost like a screenplay, so the adaptation wasn't a real problem. My doubts about it concerned the most the cast, because reading the book I wasn't able to imagine the right faces for these characters, but Salvatores hasn't disappointed me: Elio Germano is outstanding and creates the best role in his career, I think; I didn't know previous works from Filippo Timi but according to me he's a very good actor and the young Alvaro Caleca makes a wonderful breakthrough in cinema world.

I particularly liked the soundtrack, with music composed by Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti (an alternative Italian rock band from the same area in which the movie was filmed), Bob Dylan, Robbie Williams and original music only for the movie.