Strong and Moving!

Memorable, crazy movie

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Excellent but underrated film

This movie met if not exceeded my expectations before watching this eventful film. I was not aware there was a novel until reading previous comments, and I will make sure to look for this novel as the books always tend to be just a tad better. The actors played their parts rather marvelous! Each character had their own struggles going on, besides the main battle of the movie. By the end of the movie you just felt sorry for some and their way of being/what struggles they were going through. The whole plot was divided into chapters from different characters' perspectives which helped the viewer understand more what is going on in each characters' lives (there is a lot). And so because of this you were more in touch with their emotions. It was amazing how there may have been multiple perspectives on the main incident that brings this movie together, however, they all connect just perfectly. Each of the characters which we see input on has a great internal struggle going on, which helps the plot become so much more dramatic and amazing! Hands down would watch this again, and I definitely recommend it to anyone who loves a good eventful, dramatic, and changing of a character type of movie!

Directed by Paolo Virzi based on the novel by American author Stephen Amidon this film is one of those that requires full attention so that the myriad aspects of individual views of a lifestyle and an incident seep in slowly.The destinies of two families are irrevocably tied together after a cyclist is hit off the road by a jeep in the night before Christmas Eve. The intertwined cast of characters are Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a small-time real estate agent who dreams of bigger things, Serena Ossola (Matilde Gioli), his teenage daughter who dates a spoiled rich brat, Carla Bruneschi (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi – beautiful and brilliant as always), an actress who has given up her career to marry a wealthy businessman, Giovanni Bernaschi (Fabrizio Gifuni), her husband, a powerful player, Massimiliano Bernaschi (Guglielmo Pinelli), the troubled son of the Bernaschis', Roberta Ossola (Valeria Golino), a psychologist, Dino's second wife, Donato Russomano (Luigi Lo Cascio), a brilliant drama teacher who is enamored by Carla, Luca Ambrosini (Giovanni Anzaldo), a teenager frowned upon by others, and an anonymous cyclist. They are all shareholders of the human capital. The story is divided into four chapters, seen from the point of view of three characters, plus a final chapter. The score was written and performed by Amy Winehouse. In Italian with English subtitles.A tough movie to watch but on made with sophistication.

The opening shots are high angle looking down first on post-festive detritus, then on the driveway of a lavish estate. Is this a bird's eye view or that of the gods? Paolo Virzi's drama is about a venal, godless society. Its opening perspective is the vulture's.The title phrase is explained in an end title. It's the compensation calculation an insurance company makes for a dead person's survivors, based on age, earning potential and emotional bonds. Until then it's an implicit metaphor for the reduction of people to commodities, to be bought and sold, invested with and abandoned.Across the social range the characters reveal a predatory humanity (if that were not a contradiction in terms). At the low end the impetuous young druggie Luca appears to have been exploited by his rough, seedy but ostensibly protective uncle. Luca took the rap on a drug possession charge. At the high end Giovanni Bernaschi lives opulently on his profits from a notoriously successful hedge fund. In the middle, a small real estate company owner and eternal patsy Dino wants a big score. Taking advantage of his daughter Serena's relationship with Giovanni's son Massimiliano, Dino coaxes him to let him invest 700,000 euros in the fund, all of which he borrows, reducing his business and risking his house as collateral.Once he has hooked his prey Giovanni's friendship with Dino oddly cools. Then two disasters strike.The first disaster — for the hedge fund that thrives by selling short, counting on companies' failures — is a surprisingly buoyant economy. Gino's holding shrinks to 70,000 and his public psychologist wife announces she's pregnant. Blessings can be afflictions. Then Massimiliano gets bombed at a party and his family's SUV causes a fatal collision with a bicyclist. The hedge fund is threatened with bankruptcy and Massi seems set for jail. His only alibi is Serena's insistence that she drove him home. A reduction in the Bernaschis' social circle looms. Dino finds the truth on his daughter's email. She's covering for Luca, who driving back the SUV hit the cyclist. As any responsible father and citizen would do, Dino threatens to destroy this evidence and let Massimiliano carry the can to the can unless Giovanni pays 980,000 euros (his investment plus 40% profit) into Dino's new Swiss account — and wife Carla Bernaschi gives Dino "a real kiss — on the mouth." So everyone gets a happy ending — especially when (oh joy) the economy collapses and the short-selling hedge fund triumphs. There is no mention of the ordinary folk whose lives are ruined when the economy collapses. Even Luca, whose arrest curtails his suicide attempt, serves out his manslaughter sentence and has Serena waiting for him. The victims are as clear as the vultures. Wife Carla is a complicitous victim bird in her gilded cage, subject to her husband's demands and exclusions. He promises to fund her resurrection of an old theatre, then sells it for condos instead. She's again victimized when the theatre professor she makes her artistic director exploits her vulnerability for a one-night stand, then vituperates her for refusing to have an affair. Then she has to kiss the repulsive Dino, who starts out a victim then gloriously grows into a vulture, profiting from others' tragedies. The only solid characters are Dino's partner and his daughter Serena. They by reflex and faithfully protect the victims they meet. Only they genuinely care for anyone but themselves.

I have seen many movies in the last months, but this is very remarkable! I don't remember one that can be compared with. Amazing history, from Stephen Amidon's book, but located in Brianza, a very rich address(one of the richest in Europe), near Milan, Italy. Wonderful actors: Fabrizio Bentivoglio a 'stupid' house-agent (10/10), Fabrizio Gifuni the typical 'rich' Milanese, arrogant & heartless (10/10), Valeria Golino a very compassionate psychologist (10/10),Matilde Gioli a beautiful and 'alternative' girl(yes in Italy Gioli is pronounced like Angelina Jolie) 10/10, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (sister of the famous Carla Bruni Sarkozy) an empty minded woman in search of herself, but who pronounces the final sentence of the movie (10/10). Who killed the waiter in that foggy night? Wonderful photography by Jerome Almeras. In my heart I give one Oscar to this movie!