Dir, Michael Winterbottom UK, 2008, 94 mins, some Italian with subtitles
Cast: Colin Firth, Cathleen Keener
Review by Richard Mellor
In the extras of the Notting Hill DVD , the director's commentary sees Richard Curtis and Hugh Grant reveal that Colin Firth has a particularly elegant walk - a rather purposeful stroll that delights many viewers. That spring in Colin's step is little evident in Genova though. Here the weight of grief and responsibility drags on his Joe's shoulders like a Daniel Cleaver headlock.
The reason for this gloomy strut is quickly established in Michael Winterbottom's maudlin study. Genova' s first scene has Joe's wife Marianne (Hope Davis) driving their daughters Kelly (Willa Holland) and Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine) along a country road at dusk. A family game, whereby the older Kelly can spookily tell the colours of passing cars with her eyes shut, turns to tragedy when Mary playfully obscures her mum's vision and metal meets shrieking metal.
Next up is a funeral for Marianne, and a brilliantly observed reception scene where Joe is bombarded with "I'm so sorry"s and desperate small talk as his daughters strive in vain for some normality - Mary via a snowball fight and Kelly puffing on a joint. The situation is awkward and uncomfortable. Deciding that a change of scene would do everyone good, Joe whisks his children off to the northern Italian city of Genova , where he will teach in the university.
Cinematographer Marcel Zyskind shoots Genova beautifully: its tall, narrow alleys, lit only by shards of sunlight, thrill as much as its cobbled squares and musty churches im press . From impromptu tour guide Barbara (Catherine Keener), an old university friend and beau who landed Joe his lecturing gig, we learn quirky trivia about the city. Firmly wooed, the family move into part of a charming old palazzo and visit the busy beaches and pine forests that surround Genova's ancient walls.
For all this beauty, all never quite seems well. Joe selflessly blocks out his own grief in the interest of being a decent single parent, but still his girls drift frustratingly away from him. Bewitchingly pretty, Kelly rides around on motorbikes with the local boys, abuses curfews and speaks only opaque nothings to her father. That's nothing compared to her little sister: agonised by the prior crash, she starts conversing with and wandering after her mother's ghost.
Taking his cue from Genova's very Italian languor, Winterbottom builds tension slowly. Barbara and Joe row as he flirts with a younger student, while the sisters cease talking to each other. Danger seems to lurk in this unfamiliar world - shadowy groups of men lurking in the alleys as the girls hurry home; Kelly riding her stoned boyfriend's Vespa - without ever coming to fruition. Instead we have the sorts of capricious paranoia that detectives laugh at early on in horror movies.
After such a taut build-up, Genova 's inevitable crescendo feels a shade too cathartic. It's not enough to mar the whole film, though, nor its fine performances. While the girls do well, even if Mary ends up like Linda Blair in The Exorcist , it's all about the grown-ups here. Firth's gentle Joe is perfectly suffocated - think Mr Darcy meets Demi Moore in Ghost , post-pottery scene - while Keener's awkward ardour for him shines through without even a hint of admittance.
Like other brooding Winterbottom films - Jude , Wonderland - Genova is not for fans of action or bounding dramas. Nor those who enjoy that fine Firth strut. But if character studies and slow burns are your thing, this'll work a gloomy treat.
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