Um Amor na Itália

I liked the concept of the movie, but the tone was all over the place. I don't think the filmmaker knew what kind of movie they wanted to make, which in the end turned into a comedy but has all of these confusing twists and turns in between.

I thought Alessandro Nivola was perfectly cast as Nick, but then he goes to a party and introduces Amber to Ricky, played by...Fred Armisen, whose presence immediately made the movie feel like a TV Show.

I did enjoy the ending. I'm usually not much for interpretive endings, but for once I feel like I understood it. The movie was very messy up to that point, but I don't think I would have had the context to understand the ending without that messiness?

I don't know how I feel about this movie. I really don't.

The world's DUMBEST 35 year old woman goes on a corporate mandated trip to Italy which seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. At first, Amber's plans and assumptions are within the range of normal: she thinks going to Italy even for her lame chain restaurant (which is obviously a place that rhymes with Bolive Zarden) is going to be enriching and fun. Instead, she's stuffed away with other worker drones in an ugly old motel that is located conveniently behind the CEOs lush villa misleadingly advertised in the pamphlet. They awaken on the first day to the sorts of trainings that could have just as easily have been done in the conference room of a Hilton in Bakersfield. What's more, is that the entire group is warned that legally they're not allowed to explore on their own even at night because "Italy is dangerous" and the only time they'll actually be enjoying their journey to a foreign country are on structured group field trips to places like farmer's markets.

At this point, you can't really blame her for befriending a glamorously cool but slightly evil Aubrey Plaza decked out in Italian designer clothes and playing the role of the CEOs much-beleagured personal assistant, Kat. But you start to worry about how well her brain is functioning when she doesn't get even a tiny bit suspicious when Kat drops her off at the CEO's yacht, and drives away while millionaire Nick goes about the most obvious narcissistic sexual harassment any corporate jerk of a boss could muster. Amber falls for it hook, line and sinker as though she's a 20 year old girl who has never been in a real adult relationship with a man before. Utterly starry eyed and besotted, Amber allows Nick to buy her a wildly expensive dress even as Kat clearly says "prostituta" to the sales woman in the shop while discussing the price. Upon arriving to Nick's party, everyone starts kissing Amber or dancing with her, and telling her how open-minded she is. OBVIOUSLY Nick is a creep who is used to manipulating women with money who has invited Amber to an orgy, and everyone except her knows it.

Kat takes pity on Amber, and speedily drives her away from the impending sexcapades and instead takes her out to a dine and dash gourmet meal, drinks and dancing before making out with Amber in the alley way. At this point in the movie, I'm all for it - I would have loved nothing more than for this strange Italian vacation to turn into a bisexual romance starring Aubrey Plaza. Instead, Amber nervously backs off, continues to pine over Nick and hold him blameless, at which point laugh-out-loud chaos ensues.

But even though it's funny, it's just hard to watch the movie as an adult and not realize what a dummy Amber is, and how critical her internalized misogyny and childish naivete are to the entire plot of the film. I don't know who needs to see this film, but it probably wasn't me. I was hoping for a lot more of Aubrey Plaza.

This was disappointing. It felt pretty long / poorly edited, it wasn't snappy, it was rarely funny, it was often awkward, it just feels like the script wasn't good enough, the story isn't good enough, and I'm a fan of the absurd and the two female leads. But this was just weak, aimless, and ultimately frustrating.

SXSW 2020 Greetings again from the darkness. Expectations were sky high for the latest from writer-director Jeff Baena. His twisted humor was evident in THE LITTLE HOURS (2017), and he has collaborated again with his HORSE GIRL (2020) co-writer Alison Brie, who also takes the lead role. The assembled cast is filled to the brim with folks who have proven comedy chops, and much of the film takes place in gorgeous Italy. What could go wrong? Well, technically nothing goes wrong, it's just not as right as we hoped.

Alison Brie stars as Amber, a dedicated 9-year manager of the Bakersfield, California Tuscan Grove restaurant. It's a chain of Italian fast casual clearly meant to mock Olive Garden, and we get multiple shots of their pre-packaged bulk Alfredo sauce. When Amber's District Manager (Lil Rey Henry) informs her that she's been selected for an all-expense paid trip to Italy for the company's immersion program, she's thrilled to have some excitement in her life - plus her friend (Ego Nwodim) floats the idea of her finding love on the trip.

The group of managers is disappointed when the promised Italian villa is actually next door to the non-descript box motel where their rooms are located (Amber has a view of dumpsters). Sessions are held in a bland conference room, and those sessions are mostly unnecessary cooking lessons run by Lauren Weedman, offering no flavor of the country's culture. The fun here is derived from the interplay between the characters/actors. Zach Woods plays Dana, an over-the-top superfan of Tuscan Grove and its owner; Tim Heidecker is Fran, the full-of-himself type; Ayden Mayeri is the giggly one; Debby Ryan the aloof participant; and Molly Shannon frets incessantly over her lost luggage and erases all boundaries once Amber offers to lend her some clothes. The facilitator of the sessions is oddball Craig (Ben Sinclair), who excels in moments that beg, "was that supposed to be funny?" The dynamics change when Tuscan Grove owner Nick (Alessandro Nivola) drops in to the sessions with his assistant Kat (Aubrey Plaza, married to director Jeff Baena). Nick takes an immediate shine to Amber and their scene aboard his yacht is one of the film's best. His attraction seems to stem from the fact that she favors his deceased sister. That's wrong on so many levels. Beyond that, when Amber and Kat take off for a spin through the town, it's another highlight, as Ms. Plaza and Ms. Brie play off each other magnificently.

There is a creepy element to the film. The manager's retreat plays out differently than hoped, and the names Dana and Fran play a significant role in what is actually going on. Nick's actions are a bit disturbing, and Kat's role could easily be interpreted as falling into the Ghislaine Maxwell category. And then there is a tonal shift to the point where it seems we may be in the midst of a murder mystery. It's all a bit chaotic, but never quite as funny or tense as we hope.

Ms. Brie has a wonderful screen presence as she bounces from naïve to hopeful to confused to concerned. Mr. Nivola is also terrific flashing the charisma in TV ads and then transitioning to the soulful, manipulative, entitled rich scumbag. The contrast in the story is as distinct as the two books mentioned, Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat, Pray, Love", and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "News of a Kidnapping". Few movies combine the blandness of Bakersfield, the romance of Italy, near slapstick comedy, the suspense of a thriller, the lameness of corporate America, a kinky sex party, and a pack of stampeding wild boars. It's a lot to take on, and some parts work better than others. While we expected it to be more clever, just know going in that you should be like Amber - guarded with an open-mind.

Near to the end, the Alison Brie character says "WTF is going on?" and most viewers will have asked the same thing about an hour earlier. The film starts off fairly predictably but once the action moves to Tuscany, no-one, except the above mentioned character, behaves like normal people behave. And not in a funny, zany-comedy way, they simply become progressively more weird.

OK, you think, at any moment now, the hidden under-story will reveal itself and things will start to make sense. But it doesn't, the plot just becomes increasingly illogical, as if the writers (Brie included) concocted it one Saturday evening after several bottles of wine, with no idea how the story would end.

Having said all that, it's not so frustrating that you don't see it through to the finale, it is set in Italy in the sunshine after all. But you will probably stare at the closing credits, as I did, thinking so what was that all about?