The best thing about Italian Contemporary Film Festival that takes place every year in Toronto is that all us proud North Americans can dedicate our next ten days for Italian cinema only. You hear nothing but Italian language, learn about new characters and simply fall in love with them, like with Lucia and Maria, two wonderful characters from the opening night film, Qualcosa di Nuovo (English title: “Something New”) co-written and directed by Cristina Comencini.
Lucia and Maria are best friends for many years; to be precise, from the very first day of their conscious life. They both were married and divorced. Lucia promises herself to be done with men, so does Maria. But Maria is a different type of a person: she can imagine her life without man but only for one week. But that is the longest time she can last without one. But one day, both women’s friendship will be challenged with the appearance of Luca (Eduardo Valdarnini), a 19-year-old man, who single-handedly change their beings in the blink of an eye…
The nine minutes of the opening of Qualcosa di Nuovo swiftly introduces us to Maria (Micaela Ramazzotti) and Lucia (Paola Cortollesi). Lucia is more like a bossy friend who tries to convince Maria to finally grow up from her one-night stand relationships. She always blames Maria in her inability to chose a partner, that in the end ends up breaking her heart. Well, there is truth in her words you will learn soon, but not from Maria’s experience, but rather from Lucia who had a painful experience from her previous marriage to a saxophonist.
As you learn those facts in the very beginning, things change quickly when Maria wakes up after an eventful night realizing that she again brought a man to her house. Thinking that he is already gone, she lets her friends into the house, but when she goes out for fresh air, she returns back finding that the man, whose name we learn is Luca, was still in the house and with the help of Lucia, unintentionally though, makes him think that Lucia was the one who he spent the night with. From that moment on, everything takes a whole different turn: Maria changes Lucia along the course of the film, while Luca, the youngest one appears to be a good teacher that will end up teaching the two a valuable lesson.
Qualcosa di Nuovo is an Italian comedy with a easy-going narrative that evolves around the love affair between a young man and two middle-aged women. What you will find most amusing about this is that it tells the story from a woman’s perspective. It’s a drama that occurs more in the feminine world where two friends must learn how to get out of the hole they put themselves in and not to lose their own face. To finalize the review, Comencini’s movie is an absolute fun to watch; it’s funny and more importantly not a silly movie. It might not be a great one though, but certainly, the best of its kind.