devospartacus

There is not much that could be said for this awful misfire of a film. The sadly untalented Leto is thrust upon the screen, and at the viewers, in a performance that is so bad it isn't even worth laughing at. It's as if Leto was attempting to play Travis Bickle via Forrest Gump. The Direction was also flawed, and relayed too much on Scorsese's Classic Taxi Driver, but I give him credit for addressing the stoic audience at the Sundance Premiere during the post screening Q&A. I hope he has learned from the mistakes on this picture, and is able to deliver something more impressive his next time around. I'm trying to be generous. Lindsey Lohan was the one shining light in an otherwise unwatchable film.

Never released in America, Petri's second feature displays the same evocative mix of realism and symbolism found in THE LADY KILLER OF ROME. Cowritten by the prominent scenarist Tonino Guerra (a favorite collaborator of Petri, Antonioni, Rosi, and other Italian luminaries), the film stars Salvo Randone as Cesare, a lonely Roman plumber in his early fifties. Traveling by tram one day, he witnesses the sudden death, by heart attack, of a man his own age. The event shocks him into the realization that his own days might be numbered, and he becomes determined to make the most of the time he has left. Quitting his job, he sets out with enthusiasm to enjoy the finer things in life, but the effort only leaves him dispirited and disillusioned.