Film Review of Non ti muovere
Year: 2004 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Penelope Cruz shows her metal in a convincing performance as a woman used and abused but ultimately capable of deep love in this emotional roller-coaster of a movie that shows Italian cinema is very much alive.
In the opening shot, the camera is positioned vertically, in line with the gravity that propels rain down into the street below, to a motorcycle helmet, the umbrellas of the crowd drawn to the accident, and ultimately the body of the 15yr old woman who has sustained head injuries. She is the daughter of successful surgeon Timoteo, who operates on her. In the midst of his anguish, he reflects on his life and through flashback we see the circumstances leading to her birth, his wife and family, a passionate affair and before that a rape, and a life torn in two.
The film has a richness of symbolism that adds an aesthetic dimension to the raw emotions that keep us on the edge for over two hours. There are the display bed seashells of an empty marriage, the downward plunge of an escalator as the two characters descend into the helplessness of a doomed affair, the splashes of passionate red (shoes that are later lost, a red jumper, a child's red balloon) as their senses erupt in a bleak and colourless slum area. The title itself relates to Timoteo's occasional attempt to 'freeze' elements and people that he finds important in his life, the authoritarian command of the top surgeon intent on making life obey him, against all odds. Cruz's heartbreaking performance is the manifestation of the failure of Timoteo's attitude, the things he can't control, the people he can't control - his own passions and feelings even. And while she suffers, he suffers inwardly, powerless to order his life in a way that will help the one he loves and saddled with the guilt that he is at the root of her misery.
One might question the rationale of some of the plot, but the force with which it propels itself is reminiscent of Italian opera or the best traditions of Fellini.
Rating: 8/10
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