On the face of it, this was definitely a film that should never have been on my agenda… I certainly wouldn’t call myself an out-and-out dog-lover and I don’t have a gruesome fascination for films involving theft, hard drugs and extortion. However, very unusually for me, I HAD read Peter Bradshaw’s 5-star review in The Guardian in advance and that’s what convinced me to see it.
The main character, Marcello (very impressively played by Marcello Fonte), is an expert dog groomer living in a depressing, run-down seaside village near Rome. He reminded me, in looks, of a cross between Buster Keaton and footballer Meust Ozil. Life is hard and he ekes out a living (of sorts) by running errands for local thieves and dealing in coke on the quiet… and just about earns enough to pay for the occasional diving trip with his young daughter, the absolute love of his life. Marcello is popular with the locals – albeit that (or maybe because?) he’s no angel!
It’s difficult enough to try to make a living but this is made much, much worse (both for Marcello and other local business owners) by the presence of Marcello’s ‘friend’ Simone (played by Edoardo Pesce) – a hulking brute of man who terrorises local businesses in order to serve his own serious coke ‘needs’. He’s also Marcello’s best customer.
Well, I’m not going to give too much away except to say that there are lots of funny, endearing scenes but also lots of scenes that provide a very tangible sense of brutality and fear.
Although it wasn’t my ideal type of film, I was deeply impressed. It’s brilliantly done (with really excellent cinematography) and brilliantly acted.
I’ll definitely bolt the front door tonight… just in case!
All I’ll say is “Scooby-Do it is not”!
No comments:
Post a Comment