L'immensità

It's a family drama with a transgender subplot set in 1970 in Rome, Italy. It follows a summer in the life of a dysfunctional family.

Clara (Penélope Cruz) is the mother of three children. She is devoted to her children but has a rocky relationship with her philandering and abusive husband, Felice (Vincenzo Amato). Their oldest child, Adriana/Adri/Andrew (Luana Giuliani), is 12 years old, born as a girl but identifies as a boy. Gino (Patrizio Francioni) is a younger brother, and Diana (Maria Chiara Goretti) is perhaps a six-year-old girl.

Adri develops a summer friendship with a Romany girl named Sara (Penélope Nieto Conti), during which they identifies as Andrew. Their parents and extended family resist Adri's identification, though Clara is sympathetic. Eventually, the family encounters two crises, and Adri tries to escape through fantasy. "L'immensità" ends inconclusively.

The director came out as transgender with the release of this film. "L'immensità" tends to wander a bit but reflects a family in crisis very well. Cruz is probably too attractive for her role and tends to overshadow Luana Giuliani, who deserves great credit for a demanding and complex role.

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 .

The movie projects a background history; that of an unhappy middle class family due to the careless and extremely restrictive character of the father. We see the older daughter, Adriana's rebellious attitude towards her father's loveless dominance and inability to care for his wife or children. When the movie starts, Adriana has already rejected her female, fragile and womanizing features. Adriana rejects everything that her mother is, but also looks after her since her father humiliates Clara, her mother . Gino also rebels and manifests his unhappiness by defecating around the house. The mother is evidently distraught and looking for ways to feel happy in a bland world which flows between drinking, smoking and her time with her children. A beautiful photography, a good script and very good acting of Penelope Cruz. Very realistic and plausible, beautiful in its own drama.

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.

Saw this back at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

L'immensita is a story about the love between the character Clara and her children, set in Rome in the '70s. Emanuele Crialese previous films has proven he has talent with directing, production and narrative style as I have enjoyed his previous works. Unfortunately while L'immensità is well performed from Penélope Cruz and extremely colorful production and camerawork, the film suffers from an uneven tone and generic narrative.

The narrative is pretty simple and each moment that happens was pretty predictable of what steps it was heading for. The tone of the film is the most confusing part as the film isn't sure if the film wants to become a drama, comedy or comedy-drama at the same time. Most of the characters were not as interesting as Crialese thinks they were as many of their arches felt underdeveloped and dull. While Cruz's performance was fantastic, the child performances were a mix of being decent or pretty poor. I don't like to criticize child actors since I understand they aren't as professional as adult actors but the uneven performance does feel distracting at times.

The film isn't fully terrible as the soundtrack is pretty good, the production and camerawork is colorful and fits the time period, and the film doesn't have a bad pacing which does help to make the film still be interesting at certain levels. But the film could have use some work with better writing and characters. Overall, there are some interesting moments but the uneven narrative and weak characters wasn't able to fully make the film as impactful as it wants to be.

Rating: C+