Synopsis
A middle-class Italian family is tore apart when the father meets an old flame, the mother—a frustrated onetime actress—auditions for a play, their insecure son tries to make friends through drugs, and their underaged daughter—who has already figured out how to use sex to her advantage—does what she does best to appear on TV.
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Cast
- Fabrizio BentivoglioCarlo Ristuccia
- Laura MoranteGiulia Ristuccia
- Monica BellucciAlessia
- Silvio MuccinoPaolo Ristuccia
- Nicoletta RomanoffValentina Ristuccia
- Gabriele LaviaAlfredo
- Enrico SilvestrinStefano Manni
- Alberto GimignaniRiccardo
- Maria Chiara AugentiAnna
- Giulia MicheliniIlaria
Recommendations
- 75
Christian Science Monitor
Very well acted and directed, if overlong. - 75
New York Daily News
Laura Morante gives a fiery, layered performance as the frustrated matriarch struggling to keep her clan together. - 70
Variety
While Muccino has refined his technique over four features and has developed greater insight, his characteristic tendency toward hysteria remains. This keeps the drama fast and compelling, but also makes it slightly wearing at times. - 60
The New York Times
An abrasive but innovative fusion of farce, satire and drama that blurs their boundaries in uncomfortable ways. It's a noisy movie whose characters tend to talk at medium-to-high volume. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
It's alternately stimulating and exhausting. - 50
Village Voice
This sentimental movie is the simulacrum of an existential family drama. But the 48-year-old Morante is the real thing. - 50
New York Post
Long-winded and often over-the-top Italian soap opera about a neurotic, middle-class Roman family. - 40
L.A. Weekly
If it were less prone to soap-opera histrionics, this screechy saga of an upscale family collapsing under the weight of its members' self-absorption might have something worth saying about domestic politics in post-fascist, post-communist, post-socialist Italy.
