You don't have to be crazy to survive into Italian politics, but Viva La Liberta makes the case that it certainly helps to have a certifiable (but witty) identical twin on hand when things get dicey. Toni Servillo, so mordant and melancholy in last year's brilliant The Great Beauty, here gets a chance to split the traits. Wimpy Opposition leader Enrico is melancholy, and with good reason: his polls are lousy, and he doesn't have the moxie to do much in the way of opposing. So, in classic midlife fashion, he splits for France to pay a visit to an old lover (now married to, of all people, cinephile Enrico's favorite film director). Crazy philosopher Giovanni is mordant: just out of the nuthouse, he seizes an opportunity to impersonate his brother, a man who is, he says, "never able to be himself." When it turns out he gives good press, Enrico's campaign manager brings him on board in an effort to stave off disaster, and the fun begins. Except the movie's not really interested in fun, nor even in trenchant political satire. It's interested in Enrico: getting older, losing his way, and going backwards in the hope of finding the place where he stepped off the true path. Giovanni isn't playing a prank; he's setting the stage. This here is a slightly sweet, slightly sour tale of brotherly love. Emphasis on "slight." (2014) — Matthew Lickona
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