I banchieri di Dio

"The Bankers of God: The Calvi Affair" is a straightforward, very dialogue-heavy but fairly interesting attempt by co-screenwriter and director Giuseppe Ferrara to recreate the events of 1982 in Italy, when a very prominent banker, Roberto Calvi, got mixed up with elements as diverse as the Italian Secret Service, the mafia, and even the Vatican. A debt of over a billion dollars to the Banco Ambrosiano is discovered, and it serves as the catalyst to various high-stakes maneuvering by Calvi and others to solve their problems.

Even if you're like this viewer, and some of the details and story threads may fly over your head, Ferrara and company do a capable job of storytelling in this long but very well acted crime drama. It seems unthinkable that all of these separate entities could have been connected in some way to the goings-on. The film also uses political backdrops such as the attempted assassination of The Pope, and the Falklands War, as it all figures into this twisty plot.

All of it does have the potential to confuse the viewer, but the actors are all compelling to watch. Omero Antonutti is excellent as Calvi, a sympathetic man who is made to sweat bullets at times. Pamela Villoresi is impassioned as his worried wife. The big names in the cast are Giancarlo Giannini as the colourful Flavio Carboni and Rutger Hauer (it does take some getting used to, hearing him dubbed into Italian) as a sly Cardinal.

Wonderfully scored by Pino Donaggio, this does go on for quite a bit, clocking in at two hours and eight minutes, but with the knowledge that the whole story is shrouded in some mystery, some definite weight is added to the saga.

Seven out of 10.