O Aniversário de David

This is an overlong Italian soap opera about two fortyish married couples sharing a beautiful beach home for the summer; when the long-absent 18-year-old son of husband #1 shows up, husband #2 falls hard. All sorts of complications might arise, but the film just flounders around for almost two hours, until it finally ends in (you guessed it!) tragedy. (All those shots emphasizing husband #1's wedding ring were a dead giveaway that this would end in tears.) There's some nice scenery, a little eye-candy, and lots of talking and eating and strolling on the beach. This movie offers a long, slow haul to a limp, contrived finish.

Maybe it's because I'm Italian but this Italian film is absolutely brilliant. Anyone who says otherwise obviously doesn't get it based on what the various reviews here say. Nor is this film for the faint of heart or the weak of mind. It is stimulating, thoughtful, and very intense because you never know what will happen next, a true sign of a great film. It keeps you at the edge of your seat biting your fingernails. But any film that begins with a Wagner opera is nothing to sneeze at and if you don't get Wagner you won't get this film either. Visually, it is nothing less than stunning, in fact may very well be the most beautiful film I have ever seen. The eroticism is unprecedented, true art, done so perfect that I sat there with my mouth open because it never borders on the vulgar. The cast is sublime, just about the most perfect casting you can imagine.

If this were merely the soap opera which its form indicates, it would be overly extended and boring at 104 minutes. The fact that its principal point is making a tragedy of someone coming to terms with his sexuality, a first same-sex love scene causing a death, is unforgivably homophobic. This plays like a 1940s warning about the dangers of same-sex attraction, not a 2009 film. Tthe 'Liebestod' (Love Death) from Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde's begins, permeates,and ends this repugnant film. Could it be any less subtle? You'd think that at least, they'd have chosen an Italian opera in an Italian film! It makes 'Death in Venice' look lighthearted, and that's a period piece. This is not. Massimo Poggio turns in a nice performance, as someone else observed, but that's it. That 'Il compleanno' earned an award in Venice is shocking, as it is mawkish and unoriginal as well as offensive. No wonder it was never reissued on Blu Ray. I am very sorry to have seen it.

A Great Italian movie. I didn't like the ending though , but still a wonderful movie (why should all gay relationships be tarnished with guilt by writers). For some reason European films have a lower ranking than Hollywood films on IMDb even though they are sometimes of better quality. This is a great drama film.

Whats great about this movie is the way it recreates moments and precisely conveys what the characters are feeling - the bike scene with David and Matteo is superbly done with background song "zingara" - interpreted by Iva Zanicchi, which is great. The actor who plays David's character is a real hotty by the way, watch out for an intimate scene with a song by Loretta Goggi - "Maledetta Primavera" in the background. The opera style music played in the beginning and end is a bit strong I felt - reminds me of 'Death in Venice'.

The movie has a great realistic and natural style to it, everything including conversation flows smoothly and is completely engrossing. A good watch.

Forgetting its homosexual subject matter for a moment, no one commenting on this film seems to critique it for content and execution. The gay audience pans it for it not being gay enough and out comes the gay card in accusing it of being homophobic, and I feel that the very positive comments are made only because it is gay themed. Anyway, the story was very thought-provoking, and it was dealt with in a very sober way, but in a way that was so slow paced and drawn out that it become boring by the second half of the film.

And part of the drawn-out aspects was the usual European arty scenes of sunsets, seagulls flying in front of clouds and brooding distance and close-up views of the waves. Every movie made in Italy has to be an Art House production with deep underlying meanings and this one is a prime example of that over blown propensity!

The movie was a modern tragedy and conveyed that very well, it was not a rainbow flying gay movie, but a human story that happened to involve homosexual feelings awakening in a married "straight" man - deal with it!

This would have been a very entertaining hour-long drama presentation, but as a full-length movie it detracted from its overall appeal.