Writer-director Paolo Sorrentino (IL DIVO) and actor Toni Servillo reunite for the seventh time for LA GRAZIA - a patient, melancholy drama about love and grief. Servillo plays an Italian President called Mariano. His character is grappling with whether to sign a Bill legalising euthanasia. He must also sign whether to give a presidential pardon to a woman and a man serving sentences for murdering their respective spouses. The first was escaping from a violent marriage, the second claims he was committing an act of mercy as his wife was suffering from Alzheimers. It feels as though the President, a Catholic and a Jurist, is playing for time and running down the clock as he is in the final months of his term, much to the chagrin of his devoted daughter and fellow Jurist Dorotea. Meanwhile in his personal life, Mariano is grieving his wife Aurora, but gripped with suspicions that she had an affair forty years prior with his fellow cabinet minister.
The film takes a leisurely pace as Mariano derps around the Quirinale, pondering what to do, or distracting himself by listening to rap music. This creates a patient meditative feel that I enjoyed but I still feel that it was around 20-30 minutes too long. But to compensate, the film contains flashes of profound hilarity, such as the awards ceremony roughly half way through the film, and builds to a deeply moving and profound conclusion. Much is made of the fact that the Italian phrase La Grazia can mean religious grace, but also a pardon, and also compassion.
The true joy of the film is just watching Toni Servillo give a masterclass performance full of warmth, compassion and occasionally mischief. He won the Volpi Cup at Venice for the performance, and rightly so. He can convey more with a single eyebrow raise than most actors with a full fireworks show of histrionics. Servillo is well matched in the first half of the film by Anna Ferzetti who plays his daughter, and also by Milvia Marigliano as the art critic and lifelong friend Coco Valori. Coco is a fascinating character. Comic relief in the first half of the film but building toward something more profound and deeply moving.
LA GRAZIA has a running time of 131 minutes. It played Venice, where Toni Servillo won the Volpi Cup, Telluride and London. It opens in the US on December 5th.
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