Gli indifferenti (2020)

Directed by: Leonardo Guerra Seràgnoli | 81 minutes | drama | Actors: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Edoardo Pesce, Beatrice Grannò, Vincenzo Crea, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Blu Yoshimi, Awa Ly, Denise Tantucci, Giovanni Anzaldo, Eugenio di Fraia, Pilar Fogliati

‘Gli indifferenti’ is based on Alberto Moravia’s 1929 book. After the death of her husband, Mary (Bruni Tedeschi) finds herself on the brink of financial abyss. Her new boyfriend Leo (Pesce) seems to lend a helping hand by buying the family’s villa. Son Michele (Crea) doesn’t trust Leo; daughter Carla (Grannò), just like her mother, allows herself to be taken over by Leo.

We can’t blame the respected Moravia, but the plot of this film adaptation moves quickly in a soapy direction, with a widow who marries a businessman for financial reasons, a daughter who hooks up with a stepdad and a son who does it with a house friend. Mary (a good Bruni Tedeschi) is a dependent, neurotic woman. Where’s the depth?

As always, the events cannot be made unbelievable – life is unpredictable, but the effect in drama is. Let’s say it’s dealt with in a straight line, it takes a while for the characters to take charge. The son of the house is the most interesting. He doesn’t agree with Mom’s plans, but why should he do it with someone Mother’s age now?

Leave that out or make something Oedipal out of it. The mother-son relationship is interesting enough for it. Leo’s attitude is downright cynical. When he gives Carla a birthday present in the initial phase, he says ‘this is an investment in you’. In short: it is thick. Is reality really so direct and Mary let it happen? Do people only believe in superficial illusions, are they so needy?

Maybe, because the circumstances are right. The feeling that is affected is that of fatalism – in the soap variant that is. There’s a bizarre scene – rescued by Bruni Tedeschi – in which Mary appears to come after the act, which turns out to be a cry. However, it should not be that film is just a well-acted style exercise in unhappy relationships, something has to happen that changes the view of the viewer.