Paolo Genovese
Perfetti sconosciuti

Italian cinema is experiencing a very good period. Mia madre, Il racconto dei racconti, Youth, Non essere cattivo, Lo chiamavano Jeeg Robot. If there was a film I was skeptical about, it was Genovese's new work. I haven't exactly loved some of his previous films and I feared that this Perfetti sconosciuti would be excessively hyperbolic in dealing with the subject “cell phone, that is the black box of our lives”.

Fortunately, I was wrong. The screenplay was written by ten hands, without any particularly prominent names, I believe, but it works exceptionally well. The balance is impeccable and almost surprising, between a first phase more focused on comedy and a second that tends towards drama. Without forcing it, with changes of tone that are always credible and never played on the banal surprise effect. I mean, there are obviously surprises, but the management of information (said and unsaid) is carefully polished and not aimed solely at astonishing the viewer. It is indeed obvious that some secrets will emerge from the cellphone game: you must then engage intelligently with the audience's expectations. It must be acknowledged that the screenwriters succeeded fully in this.

The construction of the characters is magnificent; it exploits every moment of footage to give connotations to the protagonists, who are many, well seven, but are defined just enough to make the story work. Rightly so, to maintain a brisk runtime and construct a somewhat complex network of relationships, Genovese found himself needing to pack every second of his film with information and necessarily prune all those branches that didn't matter for the plot's development. This doesn't mean making flat characters; these are not: they are characters portrayed with a few, masterful strokes. The important thing is that they function for under 2 hours of dinner. One can only praise such a well-done screenplay.

It is impossible to explain anything more about the story without giving away parts of the plot; I'll just say that the secrets hidden in the smartphones are anything but hyperbolic. Instead, they form a disenchanted portrait of humanity that is a bit defeated from the start, which can only confront and measure its own shortcomings. It's a competition of who is less disgusting humanely. But these premises are not rigid and there is room for something good, even within the constant bitterness of hypocrisies, lies, and silences between friends and spouses who are in reality perfect strangers.

Certainly, beautiful, multifaceted, and stimulating portraits emerge. Rocco and Eva are probably the two most complex and enigmatic, Carlotta and Lele the most hysterical, while Cosimo and Bianca have more linear traits. But the relational networks are really well unfolded and certainly not limited to romantic relationships. At the revelation of a secret, the reactions of all the friends indeed arrive punctually. In short, a truth bomb destined to cause disasters. It all works particularly well also because of the actors, who are decidedly valid. I appreciated Rohrwacher a lot, perfect in embodying Bianca, sweet and pure. But everyone is convincing, either due to intrinsic quality or because they are assigned a particularly suitable role.

The risk was to descend into brawls, large-scale drama, or insistent whining. Instead, the tones are wisely kept acidic, angry, even venomous, but without it becoming verbal assault (aside from very few passages). A disenchanted look at people's pettiness predominates on one side (Peppe's final speech, but also the revelation about Eva) and the daily hypocrisy of hiding the truth from others on the other. The ending is perfect in this sense because it highlights the fact that of all human failings, the constant concealment of the truth from the eyes of loved ones is perhaps the worst.

7/10