Mid-August Lunch (U)

It might be some men's a fantasy to be stuck in a house full of women, but how many of those men would jump at the chance if the collective age were somewhere between 300 and 400? Gianni di Greggorio, writer of Gomorrah, nearly had to suffer this experience firsthand and this is his imagining of what would have happened had he allowed his house to be taken over by a regiment of old women one August bank holiday.

Gianni plays the lead himself, a borderline alcoholic who is looking after his demanding mother while struggling with an ever growing collection of bills. Then his landlord offers at least a partial solution to his monetary woes. If Gianni will look after the landlord's two elderly relatives for the weekend, the landlord will write off some of the money owed. The local doctor then gets in on the act and after leaving his own mother with Gianni disappears for the night. Gianni is now stuck in a house with four old women and while he miraculously manages to survive the night, he then has to deal with the situation that, come the following morning, none of them want to leave.

While in real life Gianni, who also has a demanding mother, rejected the situation, he admits that he regrets it slightly, which is why he has allowed his imagination to work on how it might have been.   There is a real believability in the frustration that he suffers, as the four women fall out among themselves and make life difficult for him.  As a result of his decision to use women who had never acted before, their performances come across with a great sense of realism. It works in creating an increasingly infuriating atmosphere for Gianni to work in and when he turns to the wine bottle for comfort, there are times when the viewer craves a glass as much as he does.

Like all Italian film it moves along relatively slowly, focusing on how Gianni copes with this situation. But while the twenty four hours of the action seems like weeks for the protagonist, for the audience it is a very brief experience, assisted by the easy way in which we warm to Gianni. The dialogue is fast and easy flowing with the use of improvised dialogue adding an extra realistic dimension.

This isn't the type of comedy that will have you laughing out loud, but it's enjoyable, frustrating and heart warming in equal measure. Like the old women it's a strange mixture but somehow it works and is probably best enjoyed on a summer evening with a glass of wine at your side.