Very simple premise based on a real life event executed to perfection!
I watched this last night on RAI 1 as it was premiered. During the daytime transmissions, the actual "sisters" were interviewed a couple of times to promote the movie. They were mistaken for one another right after their mothers had given birth in the same room at the same hospital. And several years later, when their kindergarten teacher was delivering them to their mothers, she had matched one with her actual biological mother to whom she resembled a lot. As the other mom arrived, the two women had recognized each other from the shared hospital room, and got suspicious on whether the kids were switched because they really seemed to belong with the "other mom".
Now, that real life story sounds neither like a first, nor something to attract one's attention for almost two hours.
That would have been the case, right... However, the script was so well crafted that it took me in its grasp.
The plot develops very rapidly as the opening scene is of that encounter at the gate of the kindergarten. And things unfold in a very interesting way as we discover that the situations of the two families do not really form a perfect symmetry:
The fisherman's family has just one kid: The daughter they took home after the mistake at the hospital. And that mother is invested 100% in the single girl she nursed, cared for, brought up.
On the other hand, Marinella, the blonde kid, has so far lived with her two older sisters to whom she is attached very strongly.
There we go: The premise gets squared as we begin to witness not two but four different kinds of reactions from the four parents as each father and each mother is confused and sad in their own way. There is just no way to simply switch back the kids without creating multiple emotional damages that will affect the greater families.
Like a single domino causing multiple others to fall back, this past, unfortunate mistake begins to change many lives in unexpected ways.
The actual "sisters" had told in an interview that they did not recall at all the events prior to the exchange, the years they had spent with their non-biological-yet-first parents, with whom they are still in close contact. This made me suspect if the screenplay delayed the exchange one or two years as the kids looked like 5 at least, which'd make you think they'd now, at their 27, recall bits and pieces from earlier days.
It was interesting to see that a made-for-TV movie can put you on a swing of emotions thanks to a perfect screenplay that never gives a rest to character development and surprises. Hence, I'd like to congratulate everyone involved. It was hard to decide on whether to give this a 9 or a 10, and I just did not want to go overboard after a single watch.
The cast was amazing as well. I got convinced on every level in the sincerities of those people who had found themselves tangled up in the aftermath of one single yet huge mistake. Francesco Foti is a fine character actor whom I had noted in the role of Vittorio De Sica in the recent movie on the early years of Alberto Sordi.
Last but not least: Noemi Pecorella, the little actress in the role of Mirabella was not only cute but also really expressive of her emotions. So, it would not be a surprise at all to see her develop into a star in the following decades.
