Aspettando il Messia

Tempted by IMDB's rating of 8.7 my expectations were clearly set too high for this movie. Also, the "comedy" genre keyword didn't become clear to me. What did became clear was how hard life can be, what a struggle it can become. Either by the bank employee who losses his job and is put on the street by his wife/girl-friend and becomes homeless. Or by the Jewish young man who keeps working on a temporary contract, always hoping for a fixed contract while courting a lesbian. The interesting comparison that can be made between the two, is that surely the bank employee is much worse off the the Jewish young man, but is much less unhappy. The bank employee gets satisfaction from his "job" of returning personal things from people that have been robbed (he searches garbage for thrown away wallets and such that were stripped from the money by thieves). Especially beautiful are the scenes of the bank employee and the woman he falls in love with, the toilet madame of the train stations' bathrooms. Some very romantic moments are captured there.

However, the movie needs the first half of the time to set things up. That's too long, one starts wondering after 45 minutes where things are heading for. The second half must deliver the satisfaction, but has a hard time doing so. It is certainly a nice movie, but not a must to see IMHO.