The film starts out with the portrayal of an ordinary caring family, where every member pursues his own interests and goals. The father, a psychiatrist (the director Nanni Moretti), is a reserved man, who manages to keep the family member's close. This part of the movie is a built-up to the second part, which deals with the death of the son and how the remaining family members cope with this tragedy in their own way. Although the death of the son is dividing the family at first, the coping with this loss is the binding factor and helps the family, mainly through the father, come closer again.
The period after the son's death is by far the most emotional part of this movie. The father wandering on a fairground with people of his son's age, the normally quiet daughter becoming aggressive in a sports match, the mother searching a way to come closer at the wrong time are memorable images. This is a movie (like Cast Away) where not much happens, but it keeps to be interesting. The main reason for this are the acting performances, especially by the father and the mother (Laura Morante).
However, on several levels this movie is not perfect. First, the story line is very thin (after all, it can be summed up in four lines). But there's more bad news: The technical aspects like art direction, camerawork and editing are poorly executed and none of these aspects are used in favor of the story. On this level there are several lost opportunities. Then there's the pacing of the movie, which is unnecesseraly slow because the compelling story is not supported enough by compelling images (this isn't a Tarkovsky movie). Then there's the portrayal of the psychiatric patients, halfway between serious and funny, and in a way this portrayal comes over helplessly unlikely.
A movie that wins a festival like Cannes has to have something extraordinary. This movie has not. It is either a compromise choice by a jury in disarray (probably shocked after the Berlin vote for Intimacy) or Cannes 2001 was indeed a very bad year.
The period after the son's death is by far the most emotional part of this movie. The father wandering on a fairground with people of his son's age, the normally quiet daughter becoming aggressive in a sports match, the mother searching a way to come closer at the wrong time are memorable images. This is a movie (like Cast Away) where not much happens, but it keeps to be interesting. The main reason for this are the acting performances, especially by the father and the mother (Laura Morante).
However, on several levels this movie is not perfect. First, the story line is very thin (after all, it can be summed up in four lines). But there's more bad news: The technical aspects like art direction, camerawork and editing are poorly executed and none of these aspects are used in favor of the story. On this level there are several lost opportunities. Then there's the pacing of the movie, which is unnecesseraly slow because the compelling story is not supported enough by compelling images (this isn't a Tarkovsky movie). Then there's the portrayal of the psychiatric patients, halfway between serious and funny, and in a way this portrayal comes over helplessly unlikely.
A movie that wins a festival like Cannes has to have something extraordinary. This movie has not. It is either a compromise choice by a jury in disarray (probably shocked after the Berlin vote for Intimacy) or Cannes 2001 was indeed a very bad year.