L’immensità is a mesmerizing 70s slice of life, anchored by excellent performances and deeply felt emotion both in front of and behind the camera.

Inspired by director Emanuele Crialese’s own upbringing (co-written by Crialese, Francesca Manieri, and Vittorio Moroni), a fly on the wall perspective of a quietly troubled family.  Clara (Penélope Cruz) and Felice (Vincenzo Amato) have fallen out of love, but try and keep up their appearances for others;  except their children can see right through their façade.  For their transitioning child Andrea (Italian translation for Andrew), the parental tide also shifts at the same pace as Andrea’s struggle to be taken seriously as a teenage boy.  While Feliece chooses to ignore (simply because he doesn’t understand), Clara supports Andrea as best as she can.

Through L’immensità, movie goers watch Andrea fall for a neighbourhood girl (Penelope Nieto Conti), who also struggles to be heard for different reasons.  These exchanges remind us of the heart-wrenching romance in Boys Don’t Cry, and we’re astounded by how well these young actors are able to click into that very mature element without losing their innocence.  Most of L’immensità, however, involves Andrea’s family unit.  Crialese tells this story through an old-fashioned lens that not only captures the period detail of 1970s Rome and disciplined filmmaking, but also gives these characters intimate and resoundingly vulnerable development.

L’immensità occasionally taps into the musical genre to break up the pace but, notably, to give audiences more of a sense of who Andrea is at his core, along with his relationship to his mother.  While these scenes are fun, the viewer feels a special connection to the heart of the story with every choreographed number.  These tangents exceed points for style, and succeed within their own context.

This also marks a return to feature filmmaking for Emanuele Crialese.  Although I’m unfamiliar with Crialese’s work leading up to L’immensità, (such as Respiro and Terraferma), this old soul-of-a-film has me chomping at the bit to correct this blindspot.  Simply put: L’immensità is a marvel of a movie.

**********

Do You Tweet? Follow These Tweeple:

Addison Wylie: @AddisonWylie