Sometimes when I’m in the mood for an Italian movie I go through my (hundreds) of region 2 DVDs and look for something with English subtitles so that my husband can watch it with me. One night the choice was “Mio Cognato”, (my brother-in-law) a 2003 movie with Sergio Rubini and my favorite, Luigi Lo Cascio. My husband does not share my obsession with Italian movies and was being polite in agreeing to spend the evening that way, so it was a happy surprise when he liked it so much. It’s one of those surprising movies in general; at first glance it doesn’t look like much, but it’s a gem. It’s one of those that just didn’t get enough attention and would have been enjoyed in American theaters.
It’s been compared – justly and unjustly -to Scorsese’s “After Hours”; justly, because the stories are played out on similar stages. “After Hours” takes place late at night and into the morning in the seedy parts of New York and “Mio Cognato”, in the underbelly of Bari. In “Mio Cognato”, when Vito’s (Lo Cascio) car is stolen his brother-in-law, Toni, (Rubini) helps him pull an all nighter, searching for it. And though Toni complains to all his friends about having to help, it’s his fault in the first place, having been the insurance agent that took Vito’s payment but didn’t turn it in to the company. He tells Vito, “It’s no problem – just wait a few days to make the police report”, but when Vito says he’s already done it Toni’s exasperated at his “idiot” brother-in-law that doesn’t understand how things work.
And in many ways it feels a lot like “After Hours” as it follows the two men encountering everybody and everything in “after hours” Bari. Toni has gotten mixed up with the Bari mafia, and the people that they go to inquiring about the car are the kind that the normal, middle class Vito is not familiar with. Everybody that is asked about the car tells Toni, “The car isn’t your problem”, and it becomes clear that the car was stolen as a message for Toni.
The two brother-in-laws, who were not the best of friends when the “adventure” begins, grow closer as the night goes on, and Vito, who doesn’t get out much, gets a kind of thrill from this brush with danger. As he is introduced to every thug in town and tells them that “he’s from Bari but lives in Poggiallegro”, a nearby suburb, he is asked if he knows the mafioso guy “Glass Eye”. At first, Vito assures everyone that he doesn’t know anyone that is remotely like “Glass Eye”, but as they go deeper into the night and into the city, he starts making up stories about his relationship with the gangster – “We get together once in awhile to chat”.
The unjust comparison to “After Hours” has to do with the humor. People have said that it isn’t as funny, but it isn’t supposed to be. That dark humor in the Scorsese movie is there, in “Mio Cognato”, but it’s not the point, as it is in After Hours. “Mio Cognato” is about family, friendship, and the things that happen when you too carelessly try to navigate the underworld. Toni thinks he’s a cool guy that can run with the big dogs and finds out he’s out of his league.
Again, you need a region free DVD player, but remember, they are cheap, and if you get one you can watch all kind of European movies that aren’t available to you now.
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