Despite the acting of a few most of the movie looks like a fiction. The story was interesting enough but the flow is very very slow and some of the dialogs are pretty much irritating (I'm Italian, people do not speak like that). The photography and the camera work is all right but nothing more than a television film, pity because the location and the setting deserved more. Toni Servillo is always a good actor and lead the film easily but often he has to deal with average if not amateur actors. He did a great job with his character making it believable as well as most of the lead roles, all the others were bad, pretty much. 30 minutes shorter and it could have been a good TV film. On the other hand the story failed. Up to a certain point it was still smart, then it just felt into some obvious and predictable conclusion, which seemed to be just the end they could finally make but I think they could have resolute the movie differently, giving to it a better twist. This film should give inspiration to young Italian filmmakers because despite all other countries it seems like in Italy it's quite easy to make movie, don't need much for the producers, camera and photography can be as simple as possible, no fancy shooting and the movie can be shot in two weeks maybe. It's done with little money and it shows.
Review of The Girl by the Lake
