Points: 5
Beatrice (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), an aristocratic woman who falls prey to fantasies which include being friends with George Clooney and Bill Clinton, and Donatella (Micaela Ramazotti), a fragile young woman obsessed with recovering her son who was taken by social services because of her dangerous behaviour, are residents of a psychiatric facility for women in Tuscany. Despite their different tempers and life stories, they become good enough friends to escape together while taking part in an educational activity outside the facility.
So off they go in an adventure that will change the course of their lives forever as well as reveal some delicate secrets from their past. And in so doing, they will also realize the beauty of their imperfections.
Of course, you’ve seen this story before. In fact, it’s billed as the Italian version of Thelma and Louise. But the truth is it pales enormously in comparison to Ridley Scott’s endearing, memorable feature. And it’s not even similar. The fact that two women in trouble comfort one another as they embark on a journey of self-discovery does not mean, at all, that they are two of the same kind.
La pazza gioia (“Like Crazy”), the new outing by Italian Paolo Virzi (La prima cosas bella, Il capitale umano) is a run-of-the-mill crowd-pleaser with no insights or findings, and its overall plot is very hard to buy. Of course, massive audiences often couldn’t care less about it and the proof is that Virzi’s feature was seen by over six million people in Italy — or so the film’s poster claims. Then again, crow-pleasers tend to be loved by very undemanding viewers.
On the plus side, Bruni Tedeschi’s performance does have its good moments, particularly when she’s not an over-the-top maniac. As for Ramazzotti, let’s just say she does her best — though she’s almost constantly eclipsed by Bruni Tedeschi — but she can only do so with a character that’s your usual crazy person with the usual break downs, the usual depression and fits of madness.
Like Crazy is part comedy and part drama. For the first two acts, it’s mainly a situation comedy peppered with the usual traits such comedies have: the women act in the weirdest of ways, they are unpredictable, their conversations may make little or no sense at all, and they live in parallel universes. When a complex scenario is played for laughs, then you should have smart and somewhat original gags. When that’s not the case, and on top of it you have stereotypes posing as flesh and blood characters, then there’s little, if any, chance for the film to work.
A few minutes before the third act, Like Crazy turns into a drama and it lacks even more verisimilitude. It becomes sort of existential, rather emotional, and even more obvious. By the time you reach the ending, which seems one of Beatrice’s fantasies and yet it’s the stark reality, then all hope for improvement is dead and buried.
Production notes
Like Crazy (“La pazza gioia”). Directed by Paolo Virzi. Written by Francesca Archibugi, Paolo Virzi. With: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti, Anna Galiena, Valentina Carnelutti, Elena Lietti. Cinematography: Vladan Radovic. Editing: Cecilia Zanuso. Running time: 111 minutes.
@pablsuarez
