Hectic sex comedy, almost Restoration-like in its worldly-wise cynicism and indulgence, revolving around five Italian best buddies on the brink of thirty. One of them, the pivotal one, is an unmarried father-to-be with a wandering eye for an eighteen-year-old blonde, a sort of Florentine "Marcia Brady." One is a recent father. One is a newlywed. One is an inveterate and indiscriminate skirt-chaser. One is a torch-carrier for a former flame. Between them, they pretty much cover the possibilities. Around their extended circle, special attention is paid also to the mother of the pregnant girlfriend, a panicky grandmother-to-be, unhappily married to an uncommunicative psychologist. Keeping track of the various lifelines often feels like a juggling act with too many bowling pins. And the lurching, reeling Steadicam and capering, cantering background music don't help. (Amid the confusion it is scarcely surprising to find mismatched camera angles in which a shoulder strap is down from one point of view and up from another. Down. Up. Down. Up.) Still, and despite the essentially commonplace nature of the filmmaker's vision of grass-is-always-greener human discontentment, a good deal of actual humanity oozes through, especially by way of the peripheral character of the older woman, a knowing and self-aware portrait by Stefania Sandrelli. (A sex-kittenish photo of the actress in younger days is pinned to her vanity mirror, somewhat improbably, as a daily rebuke to her "ugly" new self. What woman would want such a slap in the face?) She has, in particular, one outstanding scene opposite Sergio Castellitto, wherein she tries to rekindle the spark with an ex-lover for whom life has moved on. Stefano Accorsi, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Martina Stella; written and directed by Gabriele Muccino. (2001) — Duncan Shepherd
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