Gabriele Muccino
Ricordati di Me

THE REVIEW

Portrait of an apparently happy bourgeois family. The parents, Carlo and Giulia, have buried their dreams, he as a writer and she as a theater actress, in favor of a family serenity that never actually arrived. Their daughter Valentina is frantically seeking success on the small screen, and the other son, Paolo, is looking for greater visibility among his peers. Daily problems and resurfacing dreams put a strain on the already fragile family relationship.

"Ricordati di Me" is sometimes a superficial film, but after all, so is the life of its protagonists. Muccino describes the Italian bourgeois family without too many frills and spares no one. The daily neuroses, personal dreams, and relationships at their lowest within the family. The desires and hopes of the protagonists occur outside the home, which is almost lived as a prison. The traumatic event that strikes one of the protagonists seems to somewhat recompact the family dynamics, much like the average Italian, who hits rock bottom only to find the strength to rise again, but then everything goes back to the way it was. The male characters emerge with broken bones, weaker and more passive compared to the women, who are stronger and able to take control of situations, reflecting today's society, in which men travel with one less gear than their female counterparts and Muccino is skilled at making us understand this. "Ricordati di Me" perhaps goes too fast, and this is the little note I personally make about the film, along with the voiceover that I found annoying and inappropriate. Good cast. Well done Bentivoglio, Morante, the great Lavia, and even Bellucci, who proves she can act.

Certainly, the neorealism and depth of Risi and Monicelli are not present (as someone has said), but whether you like it or not, "Ricordati di Me" is one of those flagship films of 2000s Italian cinema and Muccino's best, defying the (overrated) Hollywood outings with Will Smith.

Rating 3.5/5