Agata und der Sturm

(2004) Agata & The Storm/ Agata e la tempesta (In Italian with English subtitles) COMEDY DRAMA

Co-written and directed by Silvio Soldini, that watching "Agata & The Storm" is like watching a lightweight Pedro Aldomovar movie which viewers have to hold their assumptions until the very end. The star Agata (Licia Maglietta) a middle age single woman owns a book store with a younger customer falling for her. At the same time, someone by the name of Romeo (Giuseppe Battiston) goes out of his way to meet her brother who's an architect Gustavo (Emilio Solfrizzi) who may or may not be adopted. There's nothing cringing upon seeing this film, and it uses drama and irony, some predictable and some isn't, but still enough to keep viewers interested.

Agatha, a middle aged woman, owns a bookshop. She is divorced and has a special relationship with her brother. Her brother, a successful architect, just got caught in an identity crisis. He just heard he has a bohemian brother and his mother just died. You have to keep your mind at the story, because the first 15 minutes it was quite confusing, but we are following Agatha and she really is confusing! She thinks she has it all sorted out and than one day she is in love and her love is really heavy, because it's great energy. This is funny, because she cannot control it yet, so she let light bulbs burst and with her energy she can control traffic-lights. There are a great deal of extraordinary characters in this movie by Silvio Soldini, who also is the director of Pane e Tulipani. In this movie the leading character of Agatha is played by Licia Maglietta, who looks great and want the world to know it! I enjoyed it very much and despite of the first 15 minutes i invite everyone who likes Italian movies with a lot of characters and story lines to go and see this movie!

I thought Silvio Soldini's previous film, Blood and Tulips< was very good, so I thought I would give him another try.

This film was nominated for eight David di Donatello awards (Italian Oscar). Sadly, it won none, but that doesn't take away from it's excellence.

Licia Maglietta, Rosalba in Blood and Tulips, is Agata, a middle-aged book store owner. She starts and affair with Nico (Claudio Santamaria), who is 13 years younger. A cougar? (In Italy, a puma) Meanwhile, her brother Gustavo (Emilio Solfrizzi) finds out that he was the product of a one night stand, and has a brother, Romeo (Giuseppe Battiston). I have to say that Romeo is one flashy dresser.

The characters mentioned and their partners go through the travails of life with humor and love and sadness, just as we ll do. It was a sweet picture.

Agata e la tempesta is an agreeable, though half-baked, surreal dream. Agata is a happy middle-aged bookshop owner living alone, who causes magnetic storms when she's excited (making bulbs, toasters, computers, traffic lights go pop). She has a daughter in Spain and a saturnine "brother", Gustavo, nearby, who is going through an identity crisis (he has discovered he is not related to her, his real brother being a Felliniesque travelling salesman in the rag trade, with a handicapped wife and a collection of one-night-stands). He is married to a celebrity tv psychologist who counsels people in shaky marriages and enacts her own advice at home. Agata herself feels attracted to a much younger married man who idolises her. There are several other characters, all of them pulling in different directions. Each of the characters would deserve his or her movie.

This film has a number of serious flaws. Firstly, the duration - two hours - is too long for following the main thread of the inconclusive comedy plot. Secondly, It is miscast. Massironi (Ines, the psychologist - a great interpretation), is a wonderful comedienne with multifaceted charisma, who would have given extra depth to the protagonist Agata. Instead, this is played with insufficient conviction by Maglietta (whom I see far better cast as Ines), definitely too plain, overage and overweight for the character (who still walks around flimsily dressed, carelessly displaying her flabbiness. Is this really sexy?). Battiston (Romeo, travelling salesman in the rag trade), puts in an even more brilliant performance than in Bread and Tulips; he is unfortunately - and literally - sacrificed by a sloppy and shallow script. Solfrizzi (Gustavo, Agata's brother) is, at best, expressionless and his lines cliché. Santamaria, who plays the young lover, Nico, is almost laughable, with his stereotyped overacting. Which woman would keep a straight face at his courtship? Weather-beaten Jorgensen pulls off an unconvincing portrayal as the Nordic career woman infatuated with the sluggish Gustavo. Where's the spark? Two very pleasant discoveries are Volodi (playing Maria Libera, Agata's colleague), a very promising character actress reminiscent of Milena Vukotic at her best, and Lappo (Daria, Romeo's handicapped wife), funny and sweet, who may be following into the late Giulietta Masina's steps.

I somehow miss the Silvio Soldini of Bread and Tulips, and hope to see him back in full colours in the future. Overall mark: C-

Silvio Soldini has created another masterpiece, perhaps not quite

as good as 'Pane e Tulipani', and yet perhaps it is even better.

The movie has an ethereal quality, Fellini without the black edges.

Licia Maglietta is wonderful, she expresses feelings with a little

twist of her face better than anyone, she is a delight to watch. The

attitude of the characters to infidelity, which pervades all their lives,

is classic Italian… something that the Anglo Saxon / American

mind can't understand. The characters are reminiscent of the three men in Sandra

Nettelbeck's 'Bella Martha' who all manage to live their lives

without killing anyone or even revealing a nasty sinister inner-self,

a refreshing change and perhaps not totally divorced from reality.

This is a movie for those with romance in their soul, it challenges

us to dream and shows us the power of belief, it is very funny,

thoroughly entertaining and leaves you with warm glow. Ten out of

ten!