Film: 'Mia Madre'

Nanni Moretti's films have never been dull. Here, as director, writer and actor, he's made a beautifully judged film, possibly his finest to date.
Based on the loss of his own mother during the making of his previous film 'Habemus Papem', this one, with Margarita Buy in the central role (Moretti himself playing her brother) chronicles the decline of their mother, alternately in hospital or at home, suffering from a terminal respiratory condition.

Buy is a film director currently working on a project showing an industrial dispute, she trying to hold herself and the project together amid frequent visits to her mother who's also given to mental wanderings, and in one case, an impetuous 'escape'. Buy is not helped in her film project by importing a famous American actor (John Turturro - speaking both Italian and English) who's so full of himself and exaggerated fame, yet when it comes to work he can't seem to remember his lines. His scenes provide welcome light relief to the sombre mood prevailing on the visits to the mother by son (Moretti, in a very downplayed, but sensitive role), herself as daughter, and the latter's own teenage, Latin-learning, daughter. To complicate matters even further she has just moved out from living with her partner, much to his disappointment. So she has a lot on her plate, trying to juggle conflicting emotions demanding her attention while she fights on trying to get the film progressed. Meanwhile Turturro's character, as the new factory boss, is distrusted by his workforce suspecting imminent lay-offs, while he himself, amid fluffed or forgotten lines at which he frequently loses his cool, tries vainly to reassure the employees.

It's a perfectly balanced film - moving, yet not over-sentimental, when it could so easily have fallen into that trap. There's no doubt that the film's focus is Margarita Buy's marvellous performance, a lot of her emotions written on her features rather than verbally expressed - she trying to supervise her film project yet being the victim of family and personal circumstances, inconvenient to say the least. Moretti's story and screenplay is perceptive, realistic and totally believable.
I liked this film so much that I can forgive it for including one of my pet detestations, a couple of songs (in English) on the soundtrack. Nevertheless, a most satisfying experience..................7.5.