Genova - Michael Winterbottom (2008)

Sometimes little stories in films are necessary. This is a small story, nothing pretentious. Purely human drama: how will a father with his two girls cope with the sudden death of their mother?

The film shows how scary everything becomes... that feeling of life being so volatile is very well expressed. I think that's good storytelling, it keeps you engaged throughout the film. The problem is that the characters aren't too deep. The exception is the little girl, who has secrets, has things troubling her... is alive. We don't get to know a lot about anyone else. I don't expect to know everything or have all questions answered, but it's nice to ask myself questions and be moved somewhere by a story.

The photography is very  nice, the camera is very well done. But Winterbottom always makes pretty films. They might be hit and miss, but their photography isn't. He's very good at expressing visually what he wants to say with the story. He doesn't present a touristy vision of Genova, more like how the newcomers see it... though it has to be said, it is Genova but it could be any city in the world (it could be their own city changed after the death of the mother!).

The music is okay.. not great. The sound is fair... nothing exciting (which is disappointing as such a capable director could make way better use of sound).

Colin Firth. He's a good actor. He's got a very strong presence. He's not someone you just see, he's someone you probably expect to take over the film. In Genova his perfomance is reasonable, I think he's too much of an important presence for such a small film. It makes it a larger story than it really is (nothing wrong with simple stories, but they usually require actors who aren't so obviously visible). The girls are quite unknown and seem better suited - the youngest one is an amazing actress.

Genova was written by Laurence Coriat, who also wrote Wonderland (1999), another of his film that I quite enjoyed. That is a small film, nicely performed, simple stories... I think having a big star and an 'exotic' location didn't help this time.

It's not a great film, but I found it entertaining.  I like Winterbottom, I'm tolerant with him and he's such a
prolific director that he's allowed to miss sometimes.

Genova