Monday was the perfect day – I went for a run around Circo Massimo, drank my lunch, and then went to Teatro Adriano in the Prati neighborhood of Rome and saw two movies – one after the other. The bored teenager who flatly informed me that I could not have ice with my Coke Zero smiled at me when I went back for a second can of soda. “Seeing another one?” she asked me. I don’t know if she was getting a kick out my enthusiasm for movies or just laughing at an old lady who has nothing better to do than go to the movies all day – but I appreciated her smile.
I saw “Che Bella Giornata” first and loved it and then stayed for “Femmine Contro Maschi” – Women Vs. Men. The publicity calls “Femmine Contro Maschi” the war between the sexes” and even that gave me a feeling of deja vu. Hadn’t I seen this movie, like, 1,000 times before?
One couple is fighting because the husband likes soccer too much. Another is divorced and pretending to still be married for the husband’s dying mother. Another man’s wife doesn’t like his friends and won’t let him play in their Beatles cover band. And yet another – the husband gets amnesia and the wife decides to “reinvent him” telling him that he hates soccer, loves classical music and lives to help around the house. That one was actually pretty funny.
For us who are old enough to remember the TV show “Love American Style”, Femmine Contro Maschi is like a blast from the past, and not a very fresh one. Maybe I’m just a jaded American who has watched too much television, but Femmine Contro Maschi is a formula that has been done before and too many times.
The only movie I ever walked out of in my whole life is “Love Actually” so maybe that says something about me. Maybe I just don’t like movies with big casts and everybody exploring relationships at the same time. But I think it’s just that I don’t like movies that are so predictable. Does the couple pretending to still be married get back together? Does the husband who is not allowed to play in his friends’ band get to perform in the big competition? Does amnesia guy figure out that his wife is screwing with him?
What do you think?
There are some cute moments; far fetched, but cute. Like when the divorced guy’s mom wants to see the home movies from the “vacation in Bora Bora” – the one they told her they took to create the appearance that the family was still intact. What would any reasonable person do in this situation? Why, he’d go to the beach, hire a bunch of Polynesian looking women to wear grass skirts, and create a fake vacation video. Duh!
And the amnesia guy – he’s cooking, he’s cleaning,and he’s forgotten all about his mistress. His friends come over and his wife tells them he’s too busy practicing the piano to see them – they think he’s lost him mind.
I didn’t walk out like I did at “Love, Actually”, but this wasn’t my favorite. It was still a good movie day. Did I mention I don’t want to go home?
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