http://www.reuters.com
by Natasha SenjanovicROME – Literally translating into “The Beauty of the Donkey,” “La bellezza del somaro” is a variation on “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” with two-dimensional characters languishing in overly hysterical situations.
What could possibly shock bourgeois parents today the way Hepburn and Tracy were thrown for a loop by a “colored” son-in-law over 40 years ago? Very little, successful architect Marcello (actor/director Sergio Castellitto) and his psychologist wife Marina (Laura Morante) imagine — until their 17-year-old daughter Rosa (Nina Torresi) brings home 70-something beau Armando (legendary Italian singer-actor-comedian Enzo Jannacci).
On a sunny weekend at their country house, the family, their maid, progressive rich friends and two of Marina’s patients with abandonment issues are first scandalized, then won over by Armando. Jannacci is the most bearable of the bunch, partly because of his magnetic presence and partly because as the “wise old sage” he’s given very little dialogue. When he does speak, it’s to say things like, “A snake sheds its skin often to regenerate itself. I wish for us all to be like snakes.” Not only do the others not call him on his banalities, they find him all the sexier and wiser for them.
The point to all the noisy carryings on is that liberals aren’t as liberal as they think, parents never feel appreciated and children never think they’re understood. We’re all plagued by generational conflicts and unresolved family issues and we never really grow up. In the end, Castellitto doesn’t redeem the donkey (a word used to describe something particularly ugly or dull in Italian) but offers a one-trick pony of a plot, whose characters’ incessant neuroses bring on a headache that not even the relatively peaceful ending can cure.
Gianfilippo Corticelli’s camerawork is almost always hand-held, which only adds to the frenzy, and the soundtrack is the snappiest part of the film, especially tracks by Willie Nelson, the Cranberries and 50 Cent.
Soundtrack:
1. tango 1
2. Dreams
3. Armando Topic
4. Visions
5. Just Now
6. Night Life
7. Lyric
8. A Mine
9. Duet
10. Greetings
11. P.I.M.P.
12. Joke
13. Midnight Piano Ladue
14. on the road
15. Get Yourself Another Fool
16. Trilogy
17. Lazy Moon
18. tango 2
19. Midnight Piano Laquattro
Price € 11,90
Recall that the soundtrack to the film can be purchased directly online at a special price on IBS.