You know how I’m always whining about the lack of Italian romantic comedies. At one point not so long ago someone suggested Claudio Cupellini’s Lezioni di Cioccolate (Chocolate Lessons) and I didn’t listen. Whoever that was, they were right; Lezioni di Cioccolate has everything I want in a true rom-com.
1) An amusing (however implausible) plot with lots of sexual tension? check
2) Comic sidekicks and false pretenses? check and check
3) Young, good-looking protagonists? check and check
4) Happy ending? super check
The young, good-looking protagonists? Luca Argentero and Violante Placido are likeable and believable as Mattia and Cecilia, the chocolate classmates with the love/hate relationship. Violante has a bad history with men lying to her and Mattia doesn’t choose to be just another lying SOB, but he’s forced to misrepresent himself to avoid being reported to the cops.
Violante Placido, daughter of Michele Placido, does a great job as the kind, vulnerable young woman – and she’s very pretty. Luca Argentero is super good-looking, too, and a way above average actor in the rom-com genre. His transition from insensitive moneygrubber to caring friend is done well and is, in the end, heartwarming.
And as much as I enjoyed the love story, there was something more to like; the unlikely friendship that developed between Mattia and his adversary, an Egyptian man (Hassani Shapi) was, at the same time, silly and profound. Their predicament and solution to the problem was far-fetched, but the developement of respect and affection between the two and the personal growth in their characters was not. The minute Mattia started remembering to ask, “How are you? How is your family? Is the baby eating?”, I knew that everything was going to be OK.
This is not a perfect movie, but it’s not a documentary, it’s a rom-com. A darned good rom-com.
2007 with English subtitles
Director: Claudio Cupellini
Writers: Fabio Bonifacci, Christian Poli
Stars: Luca Argentero, Violante Placido and Neri Marcorè
I Love Italian Everything 