L'immensità

I love art house Italian films from the 1970s so I wanted to see L'immensita but I found myself underwhelmed. The film is pretty, but not beautiful. It's artful but not terribly interesting. The musical moments were lovely but did not uplift a claustrophobic tale about a 12 year old trans boy obsessed with his unhappy mother. The emphasis here is on the experience of late childhood and puberty, the suffering of a trans adolescent resisting their given gender role in traditional society, and there's little escape into the wider world of Rome in the 1970s beyond a tween's impression taken from movies and television.

The movie is mostly sad and boring, and while I sympathize with the director I guess I am just not the target audience here. Also, I felt that the mother's supposed mental illness was too understated, too subtle. I didn't get that she was crazy, just miserable and looking for joy where she could find it with her kids, as she certainly couldn't have it with her husband.

How frustrating it can be when you watch a movie that has a lot of tremendous moments but doesn't hang together well as a complete whole. Such is the case with this latest offering from writer-director Emanuele Crialese, which tells the story of a family in the midst of multiple domestic crises. Set in Rome in the 1970s, the picture follows the life of Clara (Penélope Cruz), the depressed wife and mother of three who's married to an abusive, philandering, often-disconnected husband (Vincenzo Amato), and her attempts to cope with her circumstances. Clara loves her children dearly, but the young ones all have challenges of their own, especially her eldest, Adriana (Luana Giuliani), a teen who's struggling with gender identity issues. Clara and Adriana seek various forms of escape, as depicted in several fantasy sequences and regular forms of play (all captured with a terrific sense of humor), but are those diversions enough to take away their heartache? The film also seeks to address a number of Italian cultural matters, such as the privileged role of men and the expected subservient place of women, dynamics that unfold in the principal narrative as well as in ancillary story threads. Sadly, while these are all noteworthy elements of the story, there's a little too much going on for the picture to hold everything together cohesively, especially when crammed into is relatively brief 1:37:00 runtime. Also, a number of the story's aspects are presented a little too vaguely for my taste, leaving them open more to ambiguous, unfocused interpretation than bona fide nuance. To its credit, however, when the sequences work, they do so quite effectively, in large part thanks to the fine performances of Giuliani and, particularly, Cruz, whose ravishing elegance recalls a young Sophia Loren. It's unfortunate that this offering isn't better fleshed out; it could have stood to either have some elements cut out completely or to expand and elaborate on the overall narrative. As it stands now, however, this release feels choppy, underdeveloped and incomplete, despite the strength of those aforementioned moments. Those are the sequences that make this offering work; it's just a shame that there weren't more of them and that they were better tied together.

Overall I enjoyed this movie and it made some good points that leave the viewer to decide the meaning and implications for themselves .

It's an art film , there is not a specific plot or climax , instead it's just a series of events helping develop the characters and situation and dynamics . I loved this about it - they did not have some big unnecessary event to "tie " it all together - the beauty is in the subtle subtleties. The set and costume design was amazingly well done - music choice as well - helped you get into the time frame and understand societal implications of the various conflicts .

The LGBTQ+ aspect is obviously important and central , but I actually felt like the more central theme was overall internal conflict , feelings of being trapped and the dynamics between parents and children . Obviously these are portrayed through the LGBT influence in a tasteful and powerful way . I doubt the most interesting part of this however the dynamic between parent and child - mom and child / children specifically. I thought the most powerful line of the movie was "Andre " telling the mom that she is the parent and they are the kids .

The imagination scenes , ending included , really were well done and helped you come to the conclusion that you have to come to your own conclusions. . You can't leave with a definitive path going forward - instead just that both mom and daughter will keep fighting .

Worth the time for sure - Cruz was fantastic .

L'immensità is a strange film. It certainly has no obvious problems and is technically well made. Penelope Cruz is a joy in every scene, and it is nice that she has committed to acting in Italian.

It is not clear what direction the film would like to take, however; different concepts and situations seem inconsistent and unconnected, and for a character-driven film they are all superficially portrayed. It is not clear what the characters think and why they do what they do. It is then not clear what the film wants to tell us.

The child actors are not professionals and it is very visible, especially for the one with the lead role. I recognise that it was a complex part but the character comes across as almost apathetic.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really find the "why" for this film to be, but it could certainly be very much appreciated by someone with a sensitivity closer to what it wants to tell us.

This movie is, for the admission of his on author, inspired to Crialese's childhood. I could feel from the beginning to the end the difficulty of Andrea to accept his body, the inability to watch himself on the mirror or to show himself shirtless in front of other. Some amusement helps counterbalance the heaviness of the family situation, I'm referring to the musical parts of the movie which are not only beautifully shot but help understanding how the central character would like to be seen by others, in contrast to what he sees looking at the mirror. Sure, this is not an action movie, you won't find a clear villain (although certainly the father does not come out well) or an ending, yet it kept me glued to the screen for the whole duration of the film.