Alessio Ciancianaini's "L'ultima Consegna" attempts to craft an intimate character study, but ultimately delivers an experience as unfulfilling as a cold, forgotten pizza. What begins with a promising premise - Vera, stood up for a date, invites her delivery driver, Giulia, to share her dinner - quickly devolves into a languid, uninspired exercise in forced intimacy.
The central conceit, that two strangers can forge a connection over a shared meal and life stories, feels less organic and more like a theatrical device in search of a compelling narrative. The dialogue, intended to reveal the inner lives of these women, often comes across as stilted and artificial, lacking the genuine spontaneity that would make their revelations feel earned. Instead of a natural flow of conversation, we get a series of predictable disclosures, each one ticking a box on a generic "vulnerable female characters" checklist.
The film's most glaring flaw lies in its pacing. "L'ultima Consegna" drags, with scenes stretching on far past their welcome, under the misguided assumption that prolonged silence or drawn-out exchanges equate to profound depth. The result is a monotonous progression where the audience is left waiting for something, anything, to truly happen. The static setting, while understandable given the premise, only exacerbates this issue, turning what could have been a pressure cooker of emotions into a lukewarm stew of ennui.
Ultimately, "L'ultima Consegna" fails to capitalize on its initial intriguing premise. It offers a glimpse into two lives, but that glimpse is marred by a script that lacks bite and a directorial hand that prioritizes introspection over engagement. One leaves the film not with a sense of connection or understanding, but with a lingering feeling of having wasted an hour and a half, wishing they'd just ordered a different movie instead.
