An average movie

Even though I always admired Paolo Sorrentino’s work, I have to admit that I never became a huge fan. Well, in this case, even though everyone in my filmclub seemed to really enjoy this movie, to be honest, I had a hard time to really connect with it. I mean, as usual with Sorrentino, the whole thing looked great and it was always interesting to watch but, as far as I was concerned, I always felt a disconnect with the material. Again, as usual with this director, instead of giving us a straightforward plot, he gave some rather random scenes which made the whole thing quite unpredictable but also rather alienating. Indeed, even if anything could happen at any moment, why should we really care? However, what bothered me the most was the fact that it was supposed to be all very deep but, to be honest, I was never really convinced. You could say that, in many of his movies, Sorrentino displayed some fascination, or even obsession, regarding beauty and youth but it was always coming from a male protagonist. However, this time, it was supposed to be from a female protagonist but, even though Celeste Dalla Porta in her first acting job was quite mesmerizing, she felt more like a male fantasy than an actual woman (giving her the name of a siren from some Greek myth probably didn’t help). It’s interesting that the older version of the character showing up during the last 15 mins felt more real to me than the younger version during the previous 2 hrs, no matter how gorgeous she might be. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn’t really work for me, like anything else from this director, it was still quite intriguing to behold and it is definitely worth a look. 

6/10