SENTIMENTAL MANIACS
[MANIACI SENTIMENTALI]
A film review by Peer Wandel Hansen
Copyright 1995 Peer Wandel Hansen
Rating (0-10) 6.0 Directed by Simona Izzo Written by Graziano Diana, Simona Izzo, Giuseppe Manfridi Cast Barbara De Rossi, Ricky Tognazzi, Alessandro Benvenuti, Monica Scattini, Giuppy Izzo, Veronica Logan, Pat O'Hara, Edoardo Mottini, Clelia Rondinella, Alessandro Giannini Cinematography Alessio Gelsini Torresi Music by Antonio Di Pofi Produced by Renato Izzo, Giorgio Leopardi, Ricky Tognazzi
MANIACI SENTIMENTALI is a sweet and funny movie by Simona Izzo but as the movie progress it's becoming almost to neat. To me it looked like a mix between PETER'S FRIENDS with all the chaos happening in the house, and HANNAH AND HER SISTERS with the adultery and deception taking place. Everything is perfect, the actors, the setting, the story, no detail is accidental and because of this it is a bit boring.
Situated in the house "La Casa," a family feast is being prepared. The audience are introduced to all the characters, and it's difficult to keep track of them all. Mara (Barbara De Rossi) has been married for a decade to Luca (Ricky Tognazzi) and they still love each other, but facing his midway crisis Luca is also in love with Cristina, or so he think. Luca's sister Serena is chasing all men and so does both of Mara's sisters, but they are not sure with whom they are in love and how. Sandro, a friend of Luca visit the house. He is not really interested inn women but take part in all the fun and so does all the other lovers and mistresses that pop up when the story need some action.
Eventually it all come a major conflict where the air get cleared and life can go on. The story has some rather funny moments. In particular I remem- ber a part where a cellular phone is lost in the forest and it start to ring. A frog approaches and begin to croak in the same rhythm, like it is attracted to the phone. Or when the family Labrador is made a guinea pig for some Fettuchini with mushroom picked on the forest, a small drama ending up with the dog giving birth to a puppy.
You will really enjoy this film if you thought that FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL was the masterpiece of the century. If you have a romantic (naive) idea about the family life of the Italians, this movie will not let you down, but if you want renewal, difference or a moving picture, this is not the one. It portray Italians almost lifeless, the more they yell and scream at each other, the less passionate they seem. The central conflict between Mara and Lucas become a matter of secondary importance to the story.
- Peer Wandel Hansen Copenhagen, Denmark
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews