As Good As It Gets

A Disappointing Continuation

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

This is one of the movies I wouldn't like to rate. But I would recommend each and everyone of you to watch it. I'm sucker for Palme D'or winners and how could I miss this one? I'm pretty sure the concept of losing out a family member have been explored by many directors, but there is something unique about this one. Directing himself in the movie (I really think it's a very difficult job to do that), Nanni Moretti hasn't put a foot wrong. And, if you're looking for a very good screenplay and some breathtaking cinematography, this is not your thing. This movie is all about actors pouring out their emotions on screen and a really sweet background score. What got me raving about the movie is how we blame every single action of ours when things don't go our way (I think majority of us to do that). La Stanza Del Figlio is simplicity personified. I'd say a must watch.

Nanni Moretti directs and stars in this small-scale Italian drama, which won the Palm d'or at Cannes that year. It seems like a pretty poor choice, in my opinion. It's not a bad movie, really, but it's pretty unambitious. It strikes me as a lot like your average American indie drama. Moretti stars as a psychologist who has a great relationship with his loving family (wife Laura Morante, daughter Jasmine Trinca and son Giuseppe Sanfelice). The first half hour of the film is comprised of telling us how content they are - thirty to thirty-five minutes of this boring family sitting around loving each other. Unnecessary. One scene would have sufficed. Then the big tragedy happens: the son drowns in a scuba diving accident. The rest of the film is just about the other three dealing with it. It's all fine, I suppose, but, really, there's not much insight into the situation - certainly nothing we haven't seen before. The only plot point that occurs during the final hour of the film has to do with a secret girlfriend whom Sanfelice has left behind (Sofia Vigliar), who eventually shows up at their door. One of the bigger problems the film has is Moretti's performance - he's really weak. Morante and Trinca are pretty good, however.

A psychoanalyst, his wife and their two teen age children (a boy and a girl) lead a happy life together. The father gives his consultations and we watch some of them with troubled patients talking about their problems. On his spare time father and son jog together very pleasantly. And suddenly tragedy falls upon them: the young boy dies in a skindiving accident. The family atmosphere grows worse. The husband-wife relationship becomes sometimes very harsh because each of them feels differently their son's loss: while the father feels it deeply inside him but with little exteriorization, the mother opens her heart and expands her feelings more openly including with other people and doesn't understand his apparent absence of reaction thinking the he thinks more about himself than about his lost son. The husband goes on giving his psychoanalysis consultations dealing painfully with people suffering from several psychic troubles but soon realizes that he is no more able to do that. Finally they get in touch with their son's girlfriend whose existence they only know some time after the son's death and that meeting seems to have some beneficial effect on their lives. All this is shown and told without exaggerated pathos in normal daily scenes with normal people that can also cry their deep sorrow but without any excessive theatrical attitudes. The images reveal well enough how they feel without need to resort to gestures or postures too dramatic but with much realism and great psychological depth. The film has also a very quick cut rhythm with sudden transitions from one scene to another in a different atmosphere. It is a movie that rivets us from the beginning till the end although without any starts but placing us with exactitude in the characters' skins.

The family ties in this film are so astoundingly true to life, it almost brings back the tears... I cannot think of a better film dealing with grief than La Stanza del Figlio, I swear on my own life. You could think that there was nothing new to bring to the subject of the movie, and boy would you be very very wrong. Moretti deals with the loss of his son in such an amazingly realistic way, it's almost scary... And the sister, played by Jasmine Trinca, is also an endearing character. You truly and deeply feel what their family feels - the negative reviews on this type of movie are ill-directed because they are NOT the target audience. They unfortunately sneaked in the wrong theater !!Moretti's best. Period.