One of the best Italian auteurs of his generations, and also one of the most underrated ones, Di Matteo here delivers a masterpiece which was very easy to fail.
Narrating a story of personal failure like this one (the protagonist's life faces the collapse of his marriage and he has to face the impossibility of living a decent life, turning to sleep in his car) could had been pathetic, hard to watch, conventional, or simply annoying. Instead, Di Matteo seems to follow the steps of Neo-Realism, and thanks to an impressive, gigantic performance of Valerio Mastandrea (awarded with David Di Donatello, Italian Oscar), a well-paced rhythm and a well-written screenplay he puts reality in motion, something extremely rare these days. Solid performances by Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (the daughter) and Barbora Bobulova (the wife).
Narrating a story of personal failure like this one (the protagonist's life faces the collapse of his marriage and he has to face the impossibility of living a decent life, turning to sleep in his car) could had been pathetic, hard to watch, conventional, or simply annoying. Instead, Di Matteo seems to follow the steps of Neo-Realism, and thanks to an impressive, gigantic performance of Valerio Mastandrea (awarded with David Di Donatello, Italian Oscar), a well-paced rhythm and a well-written screenplay he puts reality in motion, something extremely rare these days. Solid performances by Rosabell Laurenti Sellers (the daughter) and Barbora Bobulova (the wife).