Last June when I watched Viaggio Sola with the director, Maria Sole Tognazzi, present for a Q&A after the screening, I have to admit not writing very much about it. I’d seen the movie before and hadn’t been impressed but I liked it a little better after hearing Tognazzi’s comments.
I love watching the star, Margherita Buy in anything she’s in, and she’s definitely the main reason to see this film, but it’s underwhelming in ways that are obvious to me, I guess not to distributors. It’s about middle-aged Irene, played by Buy, with a dream job with great benefits and no husband or kids to tie her down. As a “secret guest” for the Leading Hotel Chain she flies around the world making sure that the luxury hotels deserve all 5 of their stars, keeping an eye open for used glasses on coffee tables and rude service at restaurants.
The hotels themselves are Buy’s co-stars; Tognazzi explained that the Leading Hotels of the World were at first reluctant to be in a movie that hinted at flaws, but eventually realized that in the end it would be great advertising. And it is; I want to visit them all.
It’s a pretty movie with one of my favorite actresses; so why am so annoyed by its US distribution?
Because there are so many movies that are better that Americans will never get to see. Viaggo Sola is just so-so, and this gives the impression that it’s the best Italy has to offer.
Though Tognazzi feels that Irene is a new kind of movie heroine, enjoying being single and not dying to get married, it’s somehow predictable all the same, and even maudlin in the end. And though there are many realistic scenes, like when she brings her nieces along on a work trip and much to Irene’s chagrin, the children behave like children, there is too much improbable dialogue and too many clichés.
Tognazzi has just missed the mark; she took some great movie elements and turned them all into something that is just not very interesting.
The word is that it will pop up in US theaters this spring, and it has already been shown at US film festivals.
Director: Maria Sole Tognazzi
Writers: Ivan Cotroneo, Francesca Marciano
Stars: Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi
I Love Italian Everything 