The Worst Film Ever

Just perfect...

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

If you're as lucky as me, for a little less than 2 hours you'll suspend your judgment on things and let yourself in for a pleasant ride through the themes that have obsessed humanity for ages just like if you were enjoying a 2 chord love pop song. Once you adjust to the cliché-ridden cinematic language, you develop the necessary antibodies to enjoy this film. As for the recurrence of the theme (mismatching ages in couples) one can say that the way it's dealt with it's in itself a blow to the notion that chronological age coincides with personal evolution. And, I believe films are a great means to delve into this very fact, which society in general discredits. Even more so considering the film successfully stays away from the moral debate and controversy, maybe portraying a very strong willed young lady that one wouldn't for a minute feel was being deceived or coerced into a relationship with an older man. The characters are satisfactorily amusing, and humor in general does spice up the flow of things in general. The fact the film is Italian and not Hollywood is a definite plus, at least for the change.The ending, mildly unanticipated, spares us from the typical lecture on sensibility and maturity and gives way to a praise of passion we all need to see. To conclude, although making a list of cinematic and narrative atrocities would be far too easy, I feel this film's perk is that you can really enjoy it in full awareness that none of it bares much resemblance with reality.

I watched the film last night together with my 14 years old daughter and enjoyed it immensely. I know sometimes expectations are everything when forming an impression of a film (or book, etc.) and because I had read some negative reviews of the predictability and cliché-ness of the film, I did not expect unexpected endings and unusual and innovative developments and I got what I was looking for - a romance story with beautiful young people on bella Italia background. And I even got more - skillful acting and intelligent directing - the love quotes and the delicate depiction of the love scenes were the cherry on top of the ice-cream. So, if what you are looking for is a love story well told, you should find this film quite satisfying. I'm planning to watch the second part (Scusa ma ti voglio sposare) this evening and to check out more Raoul Bova films :)

I'm currently studying Italian and in yesterday's class we got to see a movie, an Italian one of course, for the very first time. The choice of my teacher was SCUSA MA TI CHIAMO AMORE, a completely unknown movie for me. Remember when some years ago filmmaker Quentin Tarantino said that "new Italian cinema is just depressing"? Well, I can't say I'm with Quentin since I don't know much about new Italian cinema (or Italian cinema in general, but hey, at least I recently got the Fernando Di Leo crime collection on Blu-Ray!), but I simply recalled what he said because this movie made me think something like this: "having tons of great Italian films, what was my teacher thinking when she decided to go with this one?" It was Italian class and the whole point of watching a film was just to hear people speaking in Italian, so obviously we could have some truly great and interesting stuff. I remember that when both my sister and my cousin were studying Italian they said to me that a Roberto Benigni film (I think it was IL MOSTRO) was shown at a class. So instead of having some Benigni, we watched this modern romantic film; it might be modern since it's from 2008, but its storyline is just the f****** same thing we all have seen countless times before. Criticizing a movie for its clichéd story is certainly a cliché itself, but I think it's necessary to point out how predictable SCUSA MA TI CHIAMO AMORE is. You are like 15 minutes into it and you just know each and every damn thing. It's also a cliché to say that this thing of having a tired storyline would really not matter if the movie gives you something else that's just great. As you can tell by my rating, with this there's nothing much that stand out. It tries to be funny, both in a straight and romantic way, but I didn't laugh nor find a memorable romantic side. It's simply ridiculous, with cheap stuff like having the two main characters meeting and getting along after being involved in a traffic collision. Or what about when the girl gets all of the sudden involved in the work issues of the guy (who is 20 years older than her)? It's soap opera stuff. Also, there's a problem with the minor characters; for instance, when the happy ending of an apparent subplot comes, out of nowhere, to the screen I was just like "who are these characters? And why should I care about them?" For me this is weak writing, and editing too; the film is full of phrases about love (by people like William Shakespeare and Pablo Neruda) and sometimes we have them on the screen out of nowhere as well. In few words: when the only thing that interests you of an Italian movie is that it is spoken in Italian, something is very wrong. *Watched it on March 24, 2012

There are a large number of characters moving in and out of the story brought to the screen, and directed by Federico Moccia. Having been given the DVD as a gift, we tried to watch it a few times, but could not get into it. Finally, we decided to persevere, basically on the strength of Raoul Bova's performance, and it turned out to be a mildly pleasant experience, although one wonders what made it such a hit when it first made it commercial debut in Italy.The idea of a May-December romance is not exactly new to the movies. In fact, Hollywood is notorious for pairing its aging male stars with younger, luscious newcomers to some excellent results. "Sabrina", "Love in the Afternoon", "Gigi", "Funny Face", just to mention a few, as well as other films, exploited the possibility of an older man falling for women that could well be their daughters. Never quite understood the allure for the mismatched couples other that the aging male stars needed vehicles in which to show they were still desirable and could perform in bed. Of course the comparison is a bit extreme because in this film, even with the age difference, Alessandro and Niki make a nice couple to look at.Mr. Moccia's story centers around an advertising executive, Alessandro Belli, being dumped by his live in companion, Elena. Confused about being left alone, he avoids the idea of falling in love again. A traffic accident involving Niki, a teen ager in a motorcycle, serves as the excuse to have them meet. Alessandro is aware of the attraction, but he fights it. For Niki, obviously the older man presents no problem. Niki, a liberal minded young woman, has no problem seducing the reluctant Alessandro, in spite of the twenty year age difference. The comedy is mildly amusing. Mr. Moccia manages to keep things moving around at a good pace. The only question in our mind is how permissive the parents of Niki can be. The new generations of youngsters, all over the world, seem to be able to do what they want, if one is to believe the way the parents of Niki are so self involved in themselves, not to notice how their daughter's affair with the older Alessandro is not exactly what they wanted for her.Raoul Bova is an accomplished comedy actor and his presence is always welcome. Michela Quattrociocche is a beautiful newcomer to the Italian cinema. Both were reunited by the director in another film we have not seen, but it might be a sequel, based on the popularity of this film in its native land.