CHICAGO -- Mario is a "Mama Sita", a young man who lives in Naples with his mother under the towering gaze of his late father's domineering portrait. He's not your standard live-at-home slug, however. When Mario is awarded a cushy civil servant post with the mayor, he's torn between the respectability of the calling and his personal dreams.
"You're a soccer player in a referee's job," a perceptive chum opines. Warm, rambunctious and ripe with free spirit, "The Fever" could do well in select-site venues. It screened at the recent Chicago International Film Festival.
Brimming with zingy anti-establishment moments -- the Italian governmental bureaucracy makes a deliciously easy target -- filmmaker Alessandro D'Alatri has fashioned a delightful story of self-discovery as Mario finds that he is not cut out for the life of a bureaucrat. A co-worker's 40-year gold watch and subsequent death triggers his desire to remove himself from this life of not-so-quiet desperation.
Although "The Fever" centers on Mario's dream of founding a dance club and spins further into male fantasyland when he hooks up with a literary go-go dancer (Valeria Solarino), the movie is a crusty story of self-discovery. Throughout the well-paced narrative, Mario grows and ends up reaching for more than he could have imagined. Most triumphantly, he has reached deeply into himself to discover that he is more than he dared think.
As the confused but ultimately focused Mario, Fabio Volo is winning as a Neapolitan version of Tom Hanks. As the poet and go-go dancer, Solarino fleshes out her fantasy role with entrancing aplomb.
Technical credits are scrumptious, especially cinematographer Italo Petriccione's smartly scoped compositions and art director Luigi Marchione's flavorful stylings.
"You're a soccer player in a referee's job," a perceptive chum opines. Warm, rambunctious and ripe with free spirit, "The Fever" could do well in select-site venues. It screened at the recent Chicago International Film Festival.
Brimming with zingy anti-establishment moments -- the Italian governmental bureaucracy makes a deliciously easy target -- filmmaker Alessandro D'Alatri has fashioned a delightful story of self-discovery as Mario finds that he is not cut out for the life of a bureaucrat. A co-worker's 40-year gold watch and subsequent death triggers his desire to remove himself from this life of not-so-quiet desperation.
Although "The Fever" centers on Mario's dream of founding a dance club and spins further into male fantasyland when he hooks up with a literary go-go dancer (Valeria Solarino), the movie is a crusty story of self-discovery. Throughout the well-paced narrative, Mario grows and ends up reaching for more than he could have imagined. Most triumphantly, he has reached deeply into himself to discover that he is more than he dared think.
As the confused but ultimately focused Mario, Fabio Volo is winning as a Neapolitan version of Tom Hanks. As the poet and go-go dancer, Solarino fleshes out her fantasy role with entrancing aplomb.
Technical credits are scrumptious, especially cinematographer Italo Petriccione's smartly scoped compositions and art director Luigi Marchione's flavorful stylings.
- 11/9/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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