Respiro

October 3, 2003

Starring: Unknown

Director: Emanuele Crialese

In this Italian film, a family is torn by the different eccentric mother figure who is a misplaced hippie in a gossip town. The story is interesting for a while, then it get all weird and ends very abruptly (ie, they couldn't think of an ending).

The movie has its' moments. The characters are very interesting, including the lead woman. The son has a very "italiano" way of speaking and is quite hilarious. Her desire for a carefree life and happiness makes her come off as a trouble maker and is pressured by the village to go to a mental hospital. She decided to run away and hide away from everybody, the village believes she is dead and then the movie sort of loses it...

I won't really give anything away, but I came out of there remembering only how odd the last 15 minutes of the movie was. Maybe if you guys get to see it you might get it...and then tell me about it because I am not gonna see this one again!

In short:
Comedy: A few comical situations
Violence/language: Not really
Nudity/sex: Yep, including shots of young boys that would get banned in hollywood...
High Points: Good acting, point of story
Low Points: Strange ending, some characters really extraneous

Rating: C+