User Reviews

Megghy(Martina Melino) is fourteen going on fifteen, just a shade older than Tracy Freeland(Evan Rachel Wood) in Catherine Hardwicke's "Thirteen". When it comes to sex, both girls are light years ahead of Liesel Von Trapp(Charmaine Carr), who was "sixteen going on seventeen", as Rolf(Daniel Truhitte) serenades this forewarning to the chaste girl under a full moon, set to the gilded music of Richard Rodgers: "Totally unprepared are you/to face a world of men/Timid and shy and scared are you/of things beyond your ken," in Robert Wise's "The Sound of Music". Rolf may only have been "seventeen going on eighteen", but the future storm-trooper sounds frightfully more mature than Melanie Freeland(Holly Hunter), or Stefania(Stefania Montorso), who is thirty going backwards, when she tells her niece, "I don't want to be a normal, old aunt. I want to be your friend," in "Dillo con parole mie", perhaps the first post-"Kids" movie that doesn't go through the motions of treating an underaged girl's sex drive as being the least bit shocking. The filmmaker frames Megghy's preternatural sexual development around a light-hearted farce in the sunny environs of los in Cyclades, an island off mainland Greece, and normalizes the potentially hairy situation(in the Larry Clarke film, the Chloe Sevigny character contracts the HIV-virus), by pairing the young girl up with a narcissistic aunt who gives her advice instead of admonishments.

As aunt and niece depart from the boat in the harbor, Stefania first learns about Megghy's plan to lose her virginity with some random guy, because the former girl scout who ditched her troop at the bus station, wants to be practiced for that other first time; with some boy she is actually in love with. To be fair, Stefania's judgment could very well be clouded, having just broken up with her longtime beau Andrea(Giampolo Morreli), but nevertheless, she misses the irony of her proclamation on her niece's venture to come-of-age as being "too big of a responsibility." The irony being: the aunt avoids taking any responsibility for the potential ramifications of Megghy's sex adventure, when she acts as a sister figure to her niece, rather than a surrogate mother, who in that capacity, would tell the young girl to wait, before dragging her back on the boat. But Stephania wants to be a girl(in her own words, "a friend"), and girls just want to have fun. Dressed in a two-piece bathing suit, Megghy has a figure that recalls Michelle Johnson in Stanley Donen's "Blame it on Rio", but Stefania lets it go, even though her niece is properly attired for a "porn star convention". It's not the bikini that she's reacting to; it's the girl's breasts. At the topless beach, "Dillo con parole mie" creates for the viewer, a torn feeling of wanting to see the bikini come off, and the awareness that the girl is a minor. When Andrea(who happens to be at the same resort as Stephania in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall"-like fashion) sees Megghy in that bikini, he's torn too; he echoes his ex's quip about the porn star convention. Not only does "Dillo con parole mie" compel the viewer into anticipating a round of statutory rape between Andrea and the lolita, the film is hopelessly contrived in keeping Stefania and Andrea apart, on what the latter describes as a small island. Reunited, after Megghy mistakenly believes that Andrea is dead, the film celebrates their reunion to the hilt with a high-spirited, but insipid musical number aboard a bus, which provides an inadequate suture for the fact that Andrea would have deflowered Megghy, had he not passed out in the tent. Stefania never realizes what a poor role model she was for her niece. But Megghy understands her aunt's failings; she tells her, "And you gave me too much freedom. Act like my aunt."

Act like that nice Nazi boy Rolf, who croons to Liesl, "Baby, it's time to think/Better beware, be canny and careful/Baby, you're on the brink." "Dillo con parole mie" is a chick flick that pretends to be sensitive; it's like a chick flick with a d***. At the heart of "Dillo con parole mie" is a semiotic riptide of girly banter and camaraderie, and ripe melons.

Wow, did I feel torn about this film! On one hand, the film had some exceptional characters (in particular the aunt). But, on the other, the play was so inappropriate and sick in how it dealt with teen sexuality it really made me angry. If you look at this film from a completely amoral standpoint, it is a very good film with a lot to recommend it. As a parent and teacher, I was just horrified at times as I watched.

First, what I liked. Aunt Stefania was a great character. At the beginning of the film, she was extremely rigid and controlling and so naturally her relationship with her boyfriend, Andrea, was falling apart. This opening sequence was extremely funny as they contrasted how both viewed the health of their relationship. He was miserable and yet all the terrible things she did, she saw them as the strengths of their relationship! Later, towards the end, there was a cute little twist that brought them back together. Throughout the film, some very good (but morally suspect) writing really kept my interest. Plus, having the beautiful backdrop of the Greek Isles made this film exciting to watch.

Now as for the bad. Stefania's niece, Megghy, was a horrible mess of a character. Although she was not quite 15, her sole ambition in life was to love her virginity with ANYONE and lose it quickly! In addition, she was a habitual liar and a self-absorbed little jerk. Now had she faced any consequences for this, it could have been funny or interesting--but this never happened.

What bothered me in particular is that Stefania is supposed to be an adult. Megghy lies to the aunt about a girl scout trip in order to go to the Greek Isles to get laid. When this supposedly responsible aunt discovers the ruse as well as why Megghy wants to go, she basically allows Megghy to run amok through the very horny island trying to find a willing partner and drink herself into oblivion! While Megghy looked older than her chronological age, her judgment was completely unsound and she was a child--and she was a likely candidate to get raped or get an STD or become pregnant (even if she went with her aunt to pick up boxes of condoms). This was supposed to be cute and funny--but to me it just seemed sleazy and morally bankrupt. Had Megghy been an adult, then perhaps you might have felt uncomfortable about her dippy behavior but you'd agree that as an adult she's free to mess up her own life. But to have the aunt help facilitate? This is just sick. Had Megghy wanted to become an assassin or sexually abuse farm animals, would Aunt Stefania have said 'no'? This film desperately needed some adults who were willing to behave as adults.

Excellent but depraved writing--I worry what messages this film might be sending to young and impressionable kids.