Inclubabu
Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Yash Wade
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Haven Kaycee
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
Bella
As American living in Italy, I can assure anyone that the main character is realistically impersonated and she had enough of the Italian typical man depicted by her husband. The movie reflects on the freedom of spirit that cannot be withheld by anyone but also upon human relationships, gossip, interpretations and misinterpretations of news, facts or subjective experiences. Perfect chosen scene for the movie, not only for the unique lagoons and architecture of Venice but also for the romance spirit lingering in every of its corner. Besides, it was a good opportunity for extensive advertising around the world. This is an Italian spoken movie with English subtitles but easy to pick up on Italian for those who would like to learn it. Recommended for light viewing.
secondtake
Bread and Tulips (2000)A feel good movie that is also a good movie. It's beyond just warm and colorful, with scenes of Venice night and day, and beyond just triumphant, with true love winning in more ways than one. It is most of all populated with great characters. Italian leading lady Licia Maglietta is a wonder of naturalistic acting. She is sympathetic of course, but not a cliché. She plays a housewife on a diversion away from her family, and she looks and acts like a housewife. As strong as she is, and as independent, she is also devoted to her family. The fact she left them at all is perfectly unfolded as an accident that she turns into an opportunity, all by intuition. The man she meets is no paradigm of handsome or charming, in fact he's just the opposite. But he is so inherently good, a really decent human being, she comes to like him, and look out for him. Played by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, he matches Maglietta's believable ease and imperfect, quiet intensity. The rest of the cast is truly supportive, and tips just slightly (or more than slightly in one case) into caricature, to reminds us, I suppose, that this is a movie, a fantasy, a comedy in many ways.But it's also a deeply serious and moving love story between two middle-aged people who are ready for renewal.I have a feeling many people, especially people with families or those conservative at heart, will find the basic premise of a woman leaving her family in a glib and almost carefree way and not going back for a long time to be shameful or even sinful. Her kids are normal distracted teenagers who like her when they notice her, her husband is a hardworking and loud businessman who doesn't beat her, her home is her own and comfortable. In other words, she has a really normal life, a good one by most measures. Does everyone have the right to up and leave a working family relationship because they feel a bit restless? Is this movie a worship of selfishness?Or is it a reminder that life is short and you have to get to what really matters, and be with people who are truly wonderful and good, no matter what?I can't think of a more joyous way to ask the question.
writers_reign
If you're not prepared to loosen up, relax and surrender to Charm, Delight, Joy, Romance then you'd best give this one a miss. On the surface if's easy to drive a truck through the premise - second chance, finding happiness in middle age - and the treatment; why, for example, set a film in Venice and then virtually ignore the 'tourist' Venice for the Venice of campi and washing lines; a film in which all the main cast are oddballs (plumber-private eye, anyone) yet just this side of totally risible. There used to be in the theatre a cliché that certain shows were designed/tailored for the 'tired businessman' and if we can extend the genre to film then this is a prime example, designed for those tired of sex-and-violence, special effects, cgi, all those formulaic Police Academies, Nightmares On Elm Street, Chainsaw Massacres, Halloweens, American Pies etc. This is in the tradition of Marty, Come September, Summer Madness, where we are offered Real, Warm, people to care about/identify with, root for. A truly lovely film.
badtothebono
I'm a sucker for non-Hollywood movies with no violence or CGI or MTVesque ADD, so I give it a 7. However, there are big flaws here. The most obvious are a couple of time-warped scenes that seem to say "we couldn't figure out how to make the transition and don't think its worth explaining the motivations, so we just took a quantum leap, use your imagination". The scene when she decides to "hitchhike home" is one, and obtw, it should have been the inflection point of the entire movie. Instead it feels like they spliced the film badly. This is not the only example. The other major problem is we are left with a "summer romance" flick that turns into unfaithful, quitter of a runaway bride-and-mother story. Thanks, we need that. I can only imagine the outcry if the shoe were on the other foot, say a man's foot. Imagine if it were a black man that left the wife & kids. Oh boy, we'd be deafened hearing the two sides war. One crying "That's what they do". The other bellowing "racist stereotyping". So, Italians made it & I'll give Italian women the benefit of the doubt (having spent some time near Genoa with one in a summer romance). maybe they'd be fine with the shoe on the other foot. As for American women, they'd all be giving it a 3 in that circumstance.
