Marco Bellochio’s sentimental new movie is a long and uninterestingly edited muddle of memories and flashbacks that contains a few intriguing moments and frustratingly tiny cameos from great performers such as Bérénice Bejo and Emmanuelle Devos. It is adapted from Massimo Gramellini’s 2012 novel Sweet Dreams, Little One.
Valerio Mastandrea is Massimo, a Turin journalist haunted by the loss of his adored mother when he was a little boy – the cause of her death having always been concealed from him by his father (Guido Caprino). Massimo has covered much in his life, as a war correspondent in Bosnia in the 90s and as a sportswriter.
There is a very good, eerie scene when Massimo gets a strange impromptu interview with a troubled football star after a high-stakes poker game: Bellochio there seems to be trying to do something more challenging, gaining some kind of access to Massimo’s painful sense of self. But it is all just leading to a sugary resolution, as he becomes a great success with a cathartic stint as the paper’s advice columnist.
It is easy to imagine a bland Hollywood remake, perhaps with Gabriele Muccino at the helm.
