REMEMBER ME
The favoured territory of Gabriele Muccino's work is the contemporary Italian middle-class family. His last feature, presented at the Festival, proved he knows the landscape well; The Last Kiss was a brilliantly conceived film that laid out the neuroses and aspirations of well-heeled people struggling to make sense of their lives. Muccino's style polished, refined, carefully composed is perfectly attuned to his subject matter.
This new film is highly focused: it looks at one family husband, wife, son and daughter then moves beyond the domestic foursome to deal with their lives outside the home. The parents have both compromised their dreams Carlo, once an aspiring novelist, has settled for a career in finance, while Giulia is teaching instead of thriving on stage as an actress. Seventeen-year-old Valentina, their nubile teenage daughter, has one driving goal: to be a successful showgirl on one of Italy's most popular television shows. Her aimless brother Paolo merely longs for a girlfriend.
Although it appears frivolous to the rest of the family, it is Valentina's dream that motivates the film's events, for father and mother faced with their daughter's unrelenting urge to succeed are prompted to reconsider their own unrealized ambitions. Giulia flirts with an unexpected acting offer that comes her way, while Carlo ponders writing his novel. When he runs into his childhood sweetheart, Carlo's youthful ambitions are rekindled; events soon lead the other characters to make important choices as well.
From this premise, Muccino spins a film that is a complex mix of sympathy and social critique, for he both loves his characters and notes their peculiar shortcomings. An existential tone of fear, uncertainty, doubt and confusion underlies the arguments, betrayals and life lessons that are learned or are they? by the whole family. Muccino, at ease with his material and characters, moves the film effortlessly through its chosen landscape with deftness and skill.
Piers Handling, Toronto Film Festival
From the director of "The Last Kiss", Gabriele Muccino
Starring Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Laura Morante, Monica Bellucci, Silvio Muccino, Nicoletta Romanoff
Drama / 2003 / 120' / rating M