Facing Windows Movie Review:


There's a bold fluidity to this film that draws us in instantly--gorgeous long takes, sumptuous music, sparky acting, vivid characters. And director-cowriter Ozpetek has more surprises up his sleeve. Giovanna and Filippo (Mezzogiorno and Nigro) are a young couple in Rome with two kids; their relationship is strained by Giovanna's dead-end job in a chicken factory and Filippo's rootlessness. When they encounter an amnesiac old man who calls himself Simone (Girotti) on the street, Giovanna wants to keep walking, but Filippo wants to help. Giovanna reluctantly agrees to let him stay with them for a day or two, and soon her mind is full of thoughts of missed opportunities and possibilities--of her dream job as a pastry chef, of the gorgeous man (Bova) who lives in the flat opposite her front window. Meanwhile, Simone is piecing together his memories, but is having trouble telling the past from the present.

Hitchcock is the inspiration here, mainly Rear Window's voyeurism and Vertigo's dark examination of identity and desire. But this isn't a just case of knowing references; it's a superb, complex story told with confidence and snaky wit. The message is that we should never be content to merely survive or to dream of a better world. We should live! Ozpetek crafts the film powerfully, with real emotional resonance in the characters and layers of meaning in the imagery. The intricate shifts between flashbacks and parallel scenes are effortlessly inventive, and the film builds serious levels of suspense and drama without ever resorting to standard movie trickery. Ozpetek also isn't afraid to play with the structure of the film's central mystery and romantic storylines, climaxing them when we least expect it, then delivering the pay-off scenes in completely fresh ways. Through all this the cast play it with real authenticity--earthy and funny, passionate and perplexed. Even the side characters are sharply written and played. These are people we can identify with, especially Giovanna's self-doubt and the tempting options in front of her. This is virtuoso filmmaking truly worthy of comparison to the Master of Suspense.

Rich Cline

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