To me, this movie is perfection.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

I adored this, but I can see why many people felt let down by it. It starts strongly, but in terms of narrative it meanders and lacks any real story or ending.But to me this was more a snapshot of the life of a family coming to acceptance of the loss of a parent. And, like real life, there isn't always a narrative or happy ending. Things happen for no particular reason and life goes on.Now on to why I loved this. Firstly, the setting. Genoa/Genova is a captivatingly beautiful place, and the camera-work makes the most of it. I dare anyone to watch this and not want to take a weekend break there exploring that city.Secondly, Colin Firth. The film starts with the loss of his wife, leaving him the sole parent of two young girls. His performance as a father left as the sole parent is exemplary. Not yet come to terms with his own grief, he ploughs on trying to be the man of the house rather than being a father.He finds himself left with two daughters. The youngest blames herself for her mother's death; the elder expresses her grief by reinforcing her sister's guilt and exploiting her new-found sexuality. He struggles to cope with properly grieving. He fails to see the psychological scars his younger daughter is carrying. He fails to come to terms with his elder daughter's transition into becoming a young woman.And while all this is happening he finds himself being offered an opportunity to escape the role (burden?) of fatherhood via the romantic interests of an attractive young Italian student. Ultimately, he places his responsibility as a father first.The great thing about this film is that all I've just said is suggested. A touch here, a glance there, unspoken conveyance of emotions. There's no heavy-handed exposition, no guiding the viewer down a particular path. You might watch this film and come away with a completely different interpretation and it would be just as valid as mine.Particular praise goes to Perla Haney-Jardine as the younger daughter. She delivers a really strong emotional performance for a kid. Willa Holland is decent as the elder daughter, striking the right balance between childhood and teenage rebellion/sexuality.In summary, it's the kind of art-house film you're either going to love or hate. But even as someone who generally hates art-house/indie cinema Genova captured my heart.

All the other reviews have gone over the plot details so I won't. Genoa looks interesting and romantic,and the actors play their parts well. But this whole story turns on the fact that Dad virtually abandons His children for the summer in a confusing city in a foreign country. After almost no orientation to their new home He hands His two daughters, ages i6 and 9,the keys and says "Good luck finding your way back home down these winding,maze like,cobble stoned alleys." Sure He comes home from work and comforts the younger daughter when she has nightmares, but He lets the older girl run wild with no control or consequences when she comes home late for curfew,and won't tell Him who she's been with or what she's doing.I don't care how much they're all mourning the death of their wife and mother,or how much the father is in denial about what His kids needs are,the very least the parent should do is set limits to behavior and control them for their own good. There never seems to be any question of "What are you doing? What are you thinking? You can't do this!"

The storyline is illogical. Who would take their children, after the trauma of losing their mother, to a centuries-old Italian city where they don't know the language, they know no-one, everything is foreign to them. The inter-relationships completely feel dysfunctional. The father is utterly ineffectual in nurturing his children. His children are having serious difficulties and he is clueless. If the purpose of placing the story in Genova was to give a metaphorical backdrop to the character's suffering then I don't accept it. That is how the movie feels - as if getting lost in a moldy old Italian city is how it feels to lose one's mother. It is bullshit. I found the movie painful to watch because the father is pathetic and clueless and the story illogical. No one would take their children to a shitty old Italian city after losing their mother.

Colin Firth has made a pretty good career of losing his spouse in the movies. Perhaps no other actor does damp eyed resignation better. This time he's a college professor whose wife dies in a tragic accident leaving him with two daughters, one crippled by the knowledge that she caused the accident. The older one seems to be auditioning for the lead role in the remake of Lolita. Turns out the dead wife is the lucky one as she only has to appear as a ghost in a couple of more scenes in this pointless, incomprehensible, nihilistic, and uttering boring movie. Mom's also pretty angry about the funeral which looks more like your typical faculty party. No one seems very sad and the kids are all outside smoking pot. The rest of the movie consists of wistful sighs, a commercial for RyanAir, furtive sidelong glances, scooter rides accompanied by bad Euro Trash music and lots of cigarettes. Does the British Lottery not have better things to do with their money? Are there no war veterans who need prosthetic limbs?