Movie 45: Il Divo

I HAVE to steal the Flixster synopsis, for reasons that will be expanded upon:

For more than 50 years, he has been Italy’s most powerful, feared and enigmatic politician. And as Giulio Andreotti begins his seventh term as Prime Minister, he and his hardliner faction take control of a country reeling from the brazen murders of several high-level bankers, judges and journalists, as well as the kidnapping and assassination of former Prime Minister Aldo Moro. But as the Christian Democrat party crumbles in a nationwide bribery scandal, suspicion begins to fall on Andreotti himself as the center of a shocking conspiracy involving the Vatican, the Mafia and the secret neo-Fascist Masonic Lodge P2. In what is called “The Trial of the Century”, Italy’s legendary Senator for Life will stand accused of corruption, collusion and murder.

And now I know what the film I just watched was about. Cause I didn’t have a clue while watching it!

Let’s get the good out of the way first. This film LOOKS great. Not in the same way as #44 but its shot beautifully. I also enjoyed the soundtrack, plenty of good tunes on there. And the Italian language is a beautiful one to listen to, very melodic, so that was nice.

There is one huge over arching problem though. I didn’t know what it was about for the most part. The trial was rather obvious yes, but before then I was quite lost. Characters are thrown in and leave and if you don’t know the history, which I didn’t, you won’t have a clue who they are or if they are important.

The passage of time isn’t all that apparent either. I don’t know if this spanned months or years as it looks the same the whole way through. The montage of mafia killings at the start obviously span years as they are dated, but the main narrative….well it would be nice if there was a calendar or a character that wasn’t old so aging would be obvious. That wouldn’t work if it’s a short time span.

I’m also not entirely sure if it’s a straight narrative or if some of it is out of order. There’s two scenes that make me think that some of it was non-linear, but its hard to tell really.

And as I wasn’t familiar with the history, I don’t know if the central performance by Toni Servillo was good or not. It’s hard to believe he would have such a staid eccentric performance unless Andreotti was actually like that so I’m assuming he did a good job. And everyone else probably did well too. I don’t think anyone sucked or anything, I just have no freakin clue what was going on really.

So it’s pretty, it sounds good and it’s confusing as hell. Wonderful. Exactly what you want in a historical political picture.

Whether he was mobbed up or not, well I guess so? Seemed that way? Dunno. Not even sure if its open to question. But frankly I WANT my Italian politicians to be mobbed up. Berlisconi is a complete criminal bastard, but it’s entertaining as hell to see from the outside. I wouldn’t want him in charge of my country, or anyone like that really, but if the Italian’s just changed the head of their countries title to “Don” and let it be run openly by wise guys I’d be happy. In Parliament they’d be shouting “HEY!” and “Oh!” at each other. It would be GREAT!

Looks like I’m asking for Jersey to take over huh? Eh, couldn’t hoit.

Next up: Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix