As Idades do Amor

I eagerly waited for this movie to come out as I knew about De Niro's part in it, and I was not disappointed with the results. The Ages Of Love or Manuale D'Amour is a movie that shows picturesque passages of Italy thus letting the audience mix with the story in a still, yet amusive plot that is prompt of sweet, credible and comic relationships. It is a film which contains interesting stories and shows De Niro's versatility proving again the actor's will and ability to transform himself into different characters while showing a new side of the actor, that I myself, having seen most of his works, have never seen before. Perfect for a calm afternoon if you're willing to relax and have a good time.

I went into this film with relatively modest expectiations. Few people had reviewed it on IMDB, and it's rating was just above average. Throughout the movie and afterwards, I found it to be a pleasant and cute movie. The three stories are well written, the scenery is beautiful, and the actors are doing a great job. All in all a very nice movie which tells a cute story of romance on three different levels. Contrary to another review here, I found the last story with De Niro to be the best. The tension between him and his friend's daughter is interesting and fulfilling. The story wasn't slow but quite engaging. And the actors performed very well. My only real criticism would be the overly pretentious taxi driver who tries to explain us what we ought to think about. It works well if it is subtle, but I found it to be a bit over done here.

I found this movie, the third of a series, a bit underdone...let down by De Niro and saved by Verdone and Scamarcio. If there's one thing I can't stand it's that so called "great" actors like De Niro are not able to even learn a few words in Italian. Yes he's supposed to be American (even though he's a professor haha) but in real life as in the movie, his lack of the language ability just adds to my low expectations of him. This overrated actor almost killed the movie.

I must say i decide to watch this movie because of the De Niro him self and what i've got was a very pleasant movie witch i wasn't expect at first. .The cast is well done along with the colors of the ambient describing Rome and Toscana and directing as well.This type of romantic comedies as I see can be very boring sometimes especially if they are American.But talking into the consideration that this was an Italian spoken language film and the stories in it are very credible in its contents I really enjoyed it.

Life can be very delightful in so many levels.....

8/10