A casa nostra

This Italian A feature is like a number of their films (Mare Nero eg.) starting off with seemingly unrelated characters who become more familiar and converge as the intrigue progresses, a departure from the Hollywood model where any lack of clarity is shunned.

The cast are superior,the Milanese settings striking and the subject, now mature Golino's police captain confronting magnate Zingaretti and telling him "It's our country too. You can't do as you like!" has some substance.

Unfortunately all the elements, that are put in place so laboriously, don't come together in any interesting way. There is a distinct so what feeling once you've gotten through the substantial running time.

As a viewer we want drama to give us successes, and failures, but just enough of the former to make us feel good without being in disbelief or failing to sympathise, and just enough of the latter that we are interested yet without being gloomy about it or frustrated. A casa rostra is the kind of movie that champions this risky line, and does it really well. I only encountered this movie by accident and was pleasantly surprised. It kept my attention throughout and was easy enough to follow, despite having to rely on subtitles, multiple storylines and edits. The edits were genius, and are testimony to some great work from the writers, the Director, the cameramen and others. I suppose the best compliment I can pay is that the movie has not aged, and I'm sure is as interesting today as it was a decade ago. There was, for me, a bit of confusion in that there are some characters that look very similar, and having to shift my gaze to subtitles to follow, I sometimes got confused as to which character I was seeing. The themes and ideas are pretty original and certainly topical. Great acting throughout, and the ending was satisfying. The movie said a lot about love, and risk. This is a fine example of Italian cinema.

Attempt at intertwining what are, essentially, several concurrent vignettes, unfortunately doesn't gel and left me cold at the disappointingly contrived conclusion. The focal point concerns a tenacious police-woman (Golino - you might remember her with bacon and eggs frying on her torso in "Hot Shots") breaking the rules to take down a white collar criminal, while other encounters (e.g. the meat-works guys entertaining some women on a night on the town) tend to fade into the background.

There's some explicit content (e.g. sex and child-birth), interesting characters and the scenery is mostly picturesque to a foreigner (Milano), but the lack of continuity and fusion that is promised (other than by shallow and unimaginative co-incidence) left me feeling misled.

While it's not a new concept, I liked the story concerning the prostitute and her 'savior', as he vainly attempts to protect her from the dangers inherent in her chosen profession; it was gritty, realistic looking, with plot twists, and offered more substance in the characterisations than the other stories, which were very lukewarm and uninvolved by comparison. Perhaps if it were possible to have made the feature about that story exclusively, this film would have more appeal.

Several characters and their personal dramas are fully and meticulously portrayed in this excellent film.

Excellent everything, director, actors --all of them! Photography (Milano shown in a very cold and gray way, almost devoid of warm and humanity). Money --small and big schemes elaborated to get it-- permeates this movie thoroughly and involves everybody in different stories.

Stories that little by little come together as pieces of a large and intricate puzzle, many times criss-crossing their individual paths, even without their knowledge.

But there is no problem, every story is perfectly followed and explained to its final completion. Very clearly. Although the editing jumps from one story to another (there are at least six stories), one is never confused by the fast cutting.

We are allowed to follow these problematic lives, become very interested in their possible destinies, some sad, some better, but in general downbeat.

Like in all great metropolis, where making a living becomes usually very difficult, especially if you don't have social status or powerful acquaintances to back up your dreams of grandeur, we are shown here the sad consequences of the hard encounter with reality.

Very enjoyable film! Some of the characters are truly beautiful people, so the 'candy for the eye' element is an unquestionable welcome addition to this excellent movie.

Very, very absorbing and entertaining film.