"A casa tutti bene" depicts a family interior that would have been noticed perhaps thirty years ago. After 10 years of strong economic crisis, in today's Italy this type of upper middle class family doesn't represents a very common model anymore. If Muccino's flick doesn't meet at all the drama levels from Vinterberg's Festen or italian tragic comedy from Monicelli's Parenti serpenti , the movie remains enjoyable and well acted yet very italian style.
8 Reviews
As much family drama as it gets
Horst_In_Translation3 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
"A casa tutti bene" or "There's No Place Like Home" is a new Italian Italian-language movie from 2018 and this is the most recent work by writer and director Gabriele Muccino who seems to be back in Italy now after his journey to Hollywood, at leats temporarily. His work here runs for 110 minutes roughly and includes many actors and actresses that Italian film buffs will immediately recognize I'm sure, but non-Italians like myself will probably not recognize a single face, even if they are big film buffs, again like myself. This does not take away from any of the quality here I must say. I was well entertained here from start to finish. It does say "comedy" here on imdb, but honestly I found that this was in its entirety a drama with everything going on here: the Alzheimer's reference, relationships being completely destroyed, love being rekindled, new love rising, family connections breaking apart, severe financial struggles, pregnancy, (almost) incest and a lot more really. The 3 out of 5 is a rating that is maybe even a bit too low as there were 3 or 4 moments when this was a really great movie such as the younger ones getting close to each other and falling in love (well they did before already I guess) or the Alzheimer's moments that weren't too frequent, but were still touching and spot-on. Frequently, films that focus on so many characters and relationship end up with problems that some of them are just very forgettable or that it feels like quantity over quality with some story lines and characters being ignored to an extent where they could have been left out completely, but what we have here is they exact opposite really. It all fits together thanks to the connections all the people have with each other. Everything is linked really. I think this could be the first film I watched by Muccino, but it really did get me curious for more by him. The setting and idea of the ferry not going that night and everything resulting from it was a good one too I think. The conflicts between the family members and their +1s felt real and authentic all the time. And like I said there were even some moments that wowed me. The acting was fine too by everybody involved. Nobody really stood out that much, but it was a strong ensemble performance as some awards bodies also recognized accurately. Some of the actors had more bait to their roles, others less, but everybody did fine. My appreciation here goes mostly to Elena Cucci, but this probably is not too surprising being a straight male. She was just adorable, well I should say her role and the approach she gave her character. All in all, a pretty good film, close to a must-see at times and without a doubt one of Italy's best of 2018. Nice to see it getting to Germany so quickly. It deserves to be shown outside Italy for sure and if you get a chance to catch it on the big screen, then don't miss out. This was a success without a doubt, a pretty challenging project for sure, but it's nice to see Muccino, but also everybody else working on this one behind and in front of the camera succeeding here. Normally I am not as big on Italian films as on French for example, but for this one my verdict is clear: Go see it. Without a doubt, a thumbs-up from me and a positive recommendation.
One of the worst movies ever
rruskus28 September 2018
Exeptional
Ben_Solo_lives10 June 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This is an exeptional movie!! The dyalogs between the characters are amazing (I saw it in its original language since I understand Italian) and the tension between them feels so real. Everything happens in a few hours just because of a storm. They have to remain on the island just one more day after the wedding of their parents, but one day is enought to blow up their minds. Because they can't stand each other, they have secrets and nobody seems truly happy, but this movie is made to let you think and reflect about your own life choices. It gives you hope. It's never too late to change your life if you are not happy. This is the message of the movie. It's better to face a bad reality instead of going on to pretend that you are happy. You can reach happiness only if you try to do something. It's never too late to change your life. I think everybody should see this movie. It's amazing!!!
Gabriele Muccino has done it again
fbvgdfbdgfngfgf19 February 2019
I know some people don't get Muccino, but I wait every his movie counting days. I cry every time watching them. This movie is no exception - it is beautiful. But if your mind is burned out with Hollywood crap where good guys are green and bad guys are red and have horns, may be skip it. This movie is about the Universe as we see it, right in front of our eyes, each person has its own Universe where he tries to find happiness by doing his best and following advices of people who love him just to find out that it is impossible and the only thing you can do is... I better leave it to Muccino.
Thank you Gabriele for being out there in my Universe... I love you
Walking Cliches, worst script ever
Duluomeray27 September 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is utterly unforgivable. Horrible. Especially because it is snotty and pretentious. Might as well turn the camera off if this is the best you can produce. Muccino, don't you feel a little bit ashamed to make people pay to see this stuff?
First of all, the plot. The storyline resembles a complex web full of branches which in the end turn out to merge into something really, really disappointing. It makes you speechless, in the wrong way. Every narrative trick desperately wants to give profundity and character develpoment to the movie, using the generally false idea that the only way to make a character, a sequence, an event profund, deep and moving is by giving it negative connotation. Like the world is collapsing and everyone has his problems and every family has its problems and blablabla. Come on, it has already been seen numerous times and moreover the assumption is false. Every situation is so drammatically tragic. No one of these people tastes like real: the standard cliché husband-wife cheating love story, the man with two families, the poor lout guy with financial problems, the writer who wants to have a one night stand with the cousin, the wife who is struggling against the hardness of being a lover/nurse and last but not least the two teenager who are not in a relationship but somehow they end up being in one since everyone is telling them to enjoy life and they are sort of expected to end up together, maybe even enjoy a sexual intercourse which they finally do. (Horrible scene btw: they have sex like a 40years old would have had. Naked in the morning, raining the night before, panties and legs upfront to remind you important things).
Secondly the characters. I know that I have already mentioned them in the plot part, but forgive me the plot is character-centered, like most of pretentious movies. I don't have anything against pretentious movies as long as they approximately match expectations. In a single sentence: they are walking clichés. Boring as nothing else. Stale, dead like an instant ramen soup. My favourite is the writer (whose name I cannot recall): he has this artistic approach towards life. He travels to Argentina by bike (there's an ocean, not mentioned; ndr), he has these ugly necklaces and bracelets that have to convey the idea that he is a passionate man, someone with a decent idea of what to do in order to appreciate life at its finest and go to bed with people. That's the guy who wants to have sex with the cousin, by the way. The guy who shows personal attachment to his son by hitting like to few instagram pics of his, by the way. The cousin is unbelievable too. She is made up of breaths like she is in the middle of sex, clichés sentences, heavy italian accent from Rome, voice always suggesting "please, please I have lived so far just for you to have sex with me" unless in the middle of the loving climax faking a catholic schoolgirl behaviour. And she switches between breath, schoolgirl voice, breath, cliché, again breath, smile, smile. Yeah, she smiles too in a sexually irritating way. Jesus Christ, where is dignity here?
Acting is okay though and I would be surprised if it weren't: the plot seems complex but it is not. It's basically an acting exercise.
The script is one of the worst I have ever seen. If not the worst. Period.
Music is the only thing that makes scenes moving. The only one. And it is okay but in the end you can actually feel that the emotional gain comes from music alone: it is really weak, fragile. It disappears even before the movie ends.
Then the worst thing, to conclude. The Muccino way of ending movies is simply unbelievable: the unbearable bottom line at the end with soft music, like we are in a '90 romcom. Always present. Please stop, Muccino. With this and perhaps with making movies. It's a torture.
First of all, the plot. The storyline resembles a complex web full of branches which in the end turn out to merge into something really, really disappointing. It makes you speechless, in the wrong way. Every narrative trick desperately wants to give profundity and character develpoment to the movie, using the generally false idea that the only way to make a character, a sequence, an event profund, deep and moving is by giving it negative connotation. Like the world is collapsing and everyone has his problems and every family has its problems and blablabla. Come on, it has already been seen numerous times and moreover the assumption is false. Every situation is so drammatically tragic. No one of these people tastes like real: the standard cliché husband-wife cheating love story, the man with two families, the poor lout guy with financial problems, the writer who wants to have a one night stand with the cousin, the wife who is struggling against the hardness of being a lover/nurse and last but not least the two teenager who are not in a relationship but somehow they end up being in one since everyone is telling them to enjoy life and they are sort of expected to end up together, maybe even enjoy a sexual intercourse which they finally do. (Horrible scene btw: they have sex like a 40years old would have had. Naked in the morning, raining the night before, panties and legs upfront to remind you important things).
Secondly the characters. I know that I have already mentioned them in the plot part, but forgive me the plot is character-centered, like most of pretentious movies. I don't have anything against pretentious movies as long as they approximately match expectations. In a single sentence: they are walking clichés. Boring as nothing else. Stale, dead like an instant ramen soup. My favourite is the writer (whose name I cannot recall): he has this artistic approach towards life. He travels to Argentina by bike (there's an ocean, not mentioned; ndr), he has these ugly necklaces and bracelets that have to convey the idea that he is a passionate man, someone with a decent idea of what to do in order to appreciate life at its finest and go to bed with people. That's the guy who wants to have sex with the cousin, by the way. The guy who shows personal attachment to his son by hitting like to few instagram pics of his, by the way. The cousin is unbelievable too. She is made up of breaths like she is in the middle of sex, clichés sentences, heavy italian accent from Rome, voice always suggesting "please, please I have lived so far just for you to have sex with me" unless in the middle of the loving climax faking a catholic schoolgirl behaviour. And she switches between breath, schoolgirl voice, breath, cliché, again breath, smile, smile. Yeah, she smiles too in a sexually irritating way. Jesus Christ, where is dignity here?
Acting is okay though and I would be surprised if it weren't: the plot seems complex but it is not. It's basically an acting exercise.
The script is one of the worst I have ever seen. If not the worst. Period.
Music is the only thing that makes scenes moving. The only one. And it is okay but in the end you can actually feel that the emotional gain comes from music alone: it is really weak, fragile. It disappears even before the movie ends.
Then the worst thing, to conclude. The Muccino way of ending movies is simply unbelievable: the unbearable bottom line at the end with soft music, like we are in a '90 romcom. Always present. Please stop, Muccino. With this and perhaps with making movies. It's a torture.
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