Good acting & production. Ugly story.
The movie is certainly visually nice to watch. The opening scene, and exposition of the apartment house and its various inhabitants is terrifically filmed. Almost worth watching for that scene.
But the story is ugly. A low cost, low class apartment house is the setting of a tawdry tale of crime and passion. Unfortunately, the passion is focused mostly on money and drugs.
A new couple moved into an apartment on the third floor, and become entwined with the other residents. But the friendship that develops between Mauro and Marcello perplexed me. Although it seems to be a central line of the film, I couldn't figure out what Mauro possibly saw in an unemployed parasite that had basically nothing going for him.
Some of the colorful characters are developed in the first half of the movie, but mostly fade out in the latter half. I suppose they were there to establish backgrounds for the main characters. I started to wonder why they were so prominent early on, but completely vanished later on, because the actually did add a lot of color to the film.
The acting was very good throughout. But the story was just so ugly that while I'd give the production values and acting a 9, I just disliked the characters and story to the point that it dragged me down to a mere 5. Take it or leave it.
But the story is ugly. A low cost, low class apartment house is the setting of a tawdry tale of crime and passion. Unfortunately, the passion is focused mostly on money and drugs.
A new couple moved into an apartment on the third floor, and become entwined with the other residents. But the friendship that develops between Mauro and Marcello perplexed me. Although it seems to be a central line of the film, I couldn't figure out what Mauro possibly saw in an unemployed parasite that had basically nothing going for him.
Some of the colorful characters are developed in the first half of the movie, but mostly fade out in the latter half. I suppose they were there to establish backgrounds for the main characters. I started to wonder why they were so prominent early on, but completely vanished later on, because the actually did add a lot of color to the film.
The acting was very good throughout. But the story was just so ugly that while I'd give the production values and acting a 9, I just disliked the characters and story to the point that it dragged me down to a mere 5. Take it or leave it.
- rklein123
- Jun 23, 2023