moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks
Michael Winterbottom never makes the same film twice. From Jude through Wonderland to 24 Hour Party People plus a foray into explicit sex with 9 Songs, the enigmatic director is one to watch. You may not always like what he has to say, but you'll never be bored. And so it is with Genova, a gutsy family drama set in the Italian city of St George. Joe (Colin Firth) is a Chicago based professor who relocates his American born daughters to Italy when their mother (Hope Davis) suddenly dies. It's a tragedy of course. She was killed in a car accident brought about by the mischievous behaviour of her youngest. Grief and blame lay squarely at the heart of Genova.
And there's the key to the film's success for Winterbottom entrusts his story with a generous heart. Supported by a family friend (Catherine Keener), Joe and the girls set about restoring their lives as best they can. It starts tentatively and with some success. Then the eldest discovers Italian boys, while the youngest is visited by the ghost of her mother. As with omelettes, something has to break.
Firth is eminently watchable as a father struggling to help his daughters reboot their lives, and perhaps his own. Similarly Keener whose nervous discomfort, caught as she is in the middle of family trauma, is palpable. The one to watch is young Perla Haney-Jardine, a newcomer who handles the guilt of her mother's death with veteran skill. Winterbottom's guerilla style, which worked so well in A Mighty Heart, is an acquired taste but one that lends the story a compelling immediacy. In confined Genovese streets, it creates a reality that keeps everyone distressingly focussed on the unfolding emotional landscape.
// COLIN FRASER
moviereview colin fraser film movie australia review critic flicks