Photo: Giuseppe Sanfelice as Andrea in Nanni Moretti's The Son's Room
Halfway through The Son's Room, director Nanni Moretti shifts the rhetoric of his narrative away from an exaggerated view of happy domesticity and into a realm of weepy melodrama. Unlike the twists from Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl and Takashi Miike's Audition, Moretti's mood swing is obvious and lacks the socio-political import that underscores and invigorates some of his earlier work. Psychiatrist Giovanni (Moretti) is a perfect dad and husband: he helps his daughter with her Latin homework (perducto means "without hardship you will be guided"—wink, wink); allows her boyfriend to exalt grass (when high, the boy says he's "looking at the universe"); and initiates group lip-synching during the family's car trips. Nicola Piovani's score grotesquely heightens the joy behind every smile, meaning disaster is inevitable.
Halfway through The Son's Room, director Nanni Moretti shifts the rhetoric of his narrative away from an exaggerated view of happy domesticity and into a realm of weepy melodrama. Unlike the twists from Catherine Breillat's Fat Girl and Takashi Miike's Audition, Moretti's mood swing is obvious and lacks the socio-political import that underscores and invigorates some of his earlier work. Psychiatrist Giovanni (Moretti) is a perfect dad and husband: he helps his daughter with her Latin homework (perducto means "without hardship you will be guided"—wink, wink); allows her boyfriend to exalt grass (when high, the boy says he's "looking at the universe"); and initiates group lip-synching during the family's car trips. Nicola Piovani's score grotesquely heightens the joy behind every smile, meaning disaster is inevitable.
