User Reviews

At this point in the Italian series at Lincoln Center it was a relief just to encounter a film about real people involved in situations one could care about. 'One Out of Two' ('Uno su due') is about chances—or at least the title is—and it takes some chances itself, risking banality or sentimentality, and coming through with a film worth seeing. The lives and people Cappuccio depicts are plausible, and he makes them engaging and specific. His 'I Truly Respect You' was shown in the series two years ago, a corporate comedy about alternative lives. This time the contemporary urban existence is again in the foreground, but this is about one man, his life, and what he can do with it.

The hero is Lorenzo (Fabio Volo, an appealing everyman who slightly resembles the young Jack Lennon), a guy who has everything going for him—great job, beautiful girlfriend, best pal as a partner, amazing apartment, prospect of making millions of euros—and then all of a sudden he collapses in the street. He winds up in the neurosurgery section of a hospital and as he awaits the results of tests, realizes that his whole life is changed. There is a beautiful little performance by former Pasolini protégé Ninetto Davoli as Giovanni, a Roman truck driver who as Lorenzo's hospital roommate reveals a deep understanding of what makes Lorenzo tick and how this kind of situation must be faced. Giovanni has not lived a good life himself, but faced with serious illness, he has grown up and become a real mensch.

Samuel Johnson famously said, "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Likewise, the knowledge that one has one chance out of two of having a fatal condition makes one reconsider one's life and one's values. This homely lesson could lead to cliché and sentimentality and often does. The secret is how much wit and specificity a writer and a filmmaker can introduce to make such a story work, and Cappuccio's previous film, though a bit labored, wasn't short on good humor.

"Rattenuto" is Lorenzo's sister's coinage for how he and she have been whenever they get together. What she means by it is a combination of shrunken and held back—in his case, probably by an all-consuming focus on a glorious future at the expense of the present. Yes, Lorenzo's threat of illness is going to make him live in the moment. After he's released from the hospital he's lost at home for a while. His girlfriend senses that he has no use for her and she leaves his beautiful apartment (not yet paid for) with its expansive view of the city of Genoa. He is lost.

Then Lorenzo goes to the office where he confronts his longtime friend and law partner Paolo (Giuseppe Battiston) about the big deal they've been planning with the Russians which is going to make them filthy rich. That turns out to be an illusion, for now anyway, and shortly thereafter Lorenzo has borrowed his sister's car and gone on a trip.

This isn't Kurosawa's 'Ikiru': 'One of Two' hasn't that sort of profundity and scope, but Lorenzo, like Kurosawa's Mr. Watanabe, may not have long to live, and he wants to do something decent and worthwhile. He goes to Umbria. Lorenzo's journey is transformative, yet delightfully specific. He meets a young woman and her mother. He does something physically risky and thrilling that he's never done before. He gets caught in a heavy rainstorm and stays up all night. He brings some people together who had forgotten how much thy love each other. And, of course, he lets go—stops being "rattenuto" and begins to smile. Davoli reappears briefly, but mainly his early appearances are simply a good memory that hovers over this appealing little film. There are some longeurs, but they are forgivable, because after all this story is about stopping and taking a look at things. This is not extraordinary film-making, and there's nothing especially unique about the style, but this is straightforward, honest work, about things that matter. And the film is brightened not just by the iconic performance by Davoli, but by the appealing presence of Fabio Volo, and the others in the cast, notably Tresy Taddei as the young woman. Another nice feature is a fresh soundtrack that avoids being cute or saccharine even though it uses Burt Bacharach in a way that sounds like elevator music.

Shown as part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center, June 2007.

This ain't a bad film, definitely. But it floats in a sort of Italian mediocrity, together with a million of other movies by Cappuccio, D'Alatri, Veronesi, Muccino (yes, him), sometimes Ferrario and other "young" Italian directors..

Technically the movie is well packaged, there are some beautiful images and sincere realistic intention, an unusual set for movies (Genova and Umbria) and the way it face the cancer theme is surely courageous, but aesthetically it lacks of a precise look or atmosphere, the dialogs aren't truly realistic nor witty and Volo, as a non-pro actor, according to me cannot handle a role deep as this.

Cappuccio tries to give the whole thing a certain halo of spirituality and existentialism but this rarely reach the score of touching the audience. Another thing I didn't like (but it is a sorta fixation of mine, i admit it..) is that in Italian cinema when someone tries to give a representation of freedom it always ends up with a group of people smoking joints around a bonfire. This, like all the other lacks of the movie, is concerned to a very mainstream way to try to look different from the mainstream.

Since other comments were very specific about the story line of this film, I only want to emphasize on the effect the plot had on me. How would you feel, what reaction will you have if after suddenly fainting and dropping on the pavement you find yourself on a hospital bed, hooked up to machines and told that you only have a few more months on this earth as a living human being when still in your late thirties?

I felt the anguish that this guy felt, he was full of black thoughts when his world collapsed drowning him in quiet desperation.

His next bed companion at the hospital is a very open fellow, quite talkative to the point of being indiscreet, but warm, sympathetic with the suffering of others (an excellent and very rare condition for a human being), and maybe under different circumstances a good friendly help.

Not to our guy though, since those terrible thoughts had transformed him in a very sour and touchy character. The following up of his illness and treatment with analysis and X-rays included, are very well edited, same with his acceptance of the cruel reality, sinking in minute after eternal minute of frightful doubts.

He is supposed to wait "Until they are ready", as his Doctor tells him when understandably anxious he asks how long will it be until he'll know what the exams have to say about his illness. I think this movie depicts quite well all the anxiety, the doubts, the painful waiting a sick person experiences when entering a hospital.

Will I come out alive? Handicapped? Blind? It's really tough when you think about it. I must be a sadist (or is it a masochist?) because the ending let me down. I was expecting something with more character, I think they found the easier way out with it. To be honest I couldn't find the main actor as having the flaws other reviewers mentioned. I found him to be an excellent actor and quite good looking.

The actress playing his fiancé is like an exquisite China Dresden figurine, very beautiful indeed. I recommend this movie quite heartily because it's really entertaining.

Well acted, well directed, what else can one ask for?

I've just come back from the Embarcadero Cinema up in San Francisco, where I just had a first hand screening of this film, followed by a Q&A session with Ninetto Davoli, the lead supporting actor in this film. It was a great experience altogether. Davoli loves to talk and joke, particularly about how he doesn't speak English, but does it in perfect English :-) To the film; to sum up my general feelings; I liked it. It was a pleasant work that had approached a frightening topic, but did so with warmth and charm. And perhaps this is the one real pitfall of this movie, for Davoli adds good weight to the film as a co-patient in a hospital for Fabio Volo's character, and where Fabio shows us how self centered his character is, the full emotional impact of the film is never fully realized.

There were a great number of humorous moments. Good dialog among the veteran actors, but the meatier part of the film seem to miss its mark. The audience is never allowed to explore Fabio's character to the story's satisfaction. And because of this it's difficult to know how and why the main character of the film feels the way he does when confronted with certain doom.

It may be because there's little to empathize with the main character in the first place. As a human being we can empathize with him, and to this extent, follow his tale, but we're never really part of him. The audience has a hard time identifying themselves with the main character. So when he goes through his transformation it's almost as if we're watching a complete stranger go through the same emotional throws. Our reaction; "wow, that's too bad, but so what? It happens to a lot of people." Ninetto Davoli's character helps alleviate a somewhat pale film by injecting some light human moments, and lets us share his world and feelings when we see that his own fate is even less certain than the main character's. So much so that I almost want to say that the film should have been about his character.

A nice little film that's worth a watch for couples and adult audiences. Certainly not a film for kids. If you want to see what Italian cinema is creating these days, then go see "One of Two".