L'ULTIMO BACIO / THE LAST KISS
Imitative of P.T. Anderson's Magnolia but an hour shorter and in
Italian, Gabriele Muccino's film juggles various people's crises to the
obstinate sawing of a string orchestra. The movie might have stuck with Carlo
(Stefano Accorsi), an advertising professional who's tempted to stray from his
pregnant live-in girlfriend, Giulia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno). But Muccino lets
his Steadicam loose among peripheral folk in a distracted quest for
universality. Carlo's male friends experience various styles of wanderlust, all
noisy; Giulia's mother ('70s star Stefania Sandrelli) has had it with her
psychiatrist husband; somebody's father dies.
In short, L'ultimo bacio has a greater number of uninteresting
characters than any film could support. It's obvious that a conservative ending
is the only one possible, since the film hasn't laid the groundwork for any
other kind, so it comes as no surprise when someone says -- without irony and
with the apparent endorsement of the film -- "Normality is the true
revolution." The psychiatrist concludes, "If people have been marrying for
thousands of years, there must be a reason" -- a remark of sufficient vapidity
to discredit psychiatry forever. In Italian with English subtitles. (115
minutes) At the Columbus.
Issue Date: November 15 - 21, 2002
|