Don't Move movie review, Non ti muovere, Sergio Castellitto, Sergio Castellitto, Penelope Cruz, Claudia Gerini. Review by Rob Blackwelder ©SPLICEDwire
Rent DVDs From NetFlix Buy movies From Amazon Buy Posters From AllPosters

SPLICEDwire content is available for print, web, radio & PDA starting at just $99/month!
DR. SELFISH
A scene from 'Don't Move'
Buy movie posters at AllPosters.com
Courtesy Photo
"Don't Move"
("Non ti muovere")
2.5 stars
(In subtitled Italian)
117 minutes | Unrated
LIMITED: Friday, April 22, 2005
Adapted & directed by Sergio Castellitto

Starring Sergio Castellitto, Penelope Cruz, Claudia Gerini, Marco Giallini, Elena Perino



 OTHER REVIEWS/COMING SOON
 
  • Penelope Cruz


  •  LINKS for this film
    Official siteShowtimes
    at movies.yahoo.com
    at Rotten Tomatoes
    at Internet Movie Database
    Sympathizing with egocentric physician having powerful flashbacks of a lost 'love' isn't easy in 'Don't Move'

    By Rob Blackwelder

    Opening with an overhead shot of the aftermath of a traffic accident as the camera slowly zooms in to reveal the lost helmet of a pretty young moped rider, "Don't Move" sets its stage in a memorably dramatic instant, then parlays this moment into another heart-stopper: the girl's father is a doctor at the hospital where she undergoes emergency brain surgery.

    Seeing his child cling to life throws the emotion-swallowing Dr. Timoteo Rossi (Sergio Castellitto, also the film's writer-director) into a spiral of memories, not of his fatherhood to a beloved daughter, but of the unlikely affair that his wife's pregnancy derailed some 15 years before.

    After this powerfully evocative prologue however, "Don't Move" flounders despite top-notch performances by Castellitto (as convincing as a vital 35-year-old as he is at a fatigued 50) and by Penelope Cruz, whose beauty is compellingly transformed into a ragged-edged, emotionally battered, seasonal hotel maid named Italia, who becomes Timo's unfortunate rape victim, then his whore, and eventually his largely neglected mistress.

    Castellitto expects empathy for the unflaggingly selfish Timo, at first because the rape was impulsive, sparked by habitual subconscious signals Italia gives off when they meet after his Volvo breaks down near the slum where she lives. A seemingly perpetual victim, she hardly bothers to fight him off, as if this has happened to her dozens of times before.

    But even as their affair progresses into a desperately needy addiction, this adaptation of an Italian novel by Castellitto's wife, Margaret Mazzantini, continues to paint Timo as a poor, wounded soul, and the far more pitiable Italia as his tragic but hard-wearing touchstone -- to whom he offers only condescending kindness in return. Despite the film's efforts to portray this as some kind of love, it never crosses either of their minds that a caring man might help her find a better job or help her move from the slums.

    And yet the performances are so vivid and Castellitto's filmmaking so potent that "Don't Move" is often spellbinding nonetheless -- especially in the film's present-day interludes as Timo comes unraveled pacing the halls outside his daughter's operating room.

    Peppered with expressive editing and metaphorically monochromed imagery, and photographed in a way that provides a visceral sense of hot weather and cold emotions, this film is nothing if not intense. But in the end, it's far easier to care what happens to Italia, to the daughter and to Timo's wife (Claudia Gerini) -- whose natural beauty, intelligence and affection make his infidelity baffling -- than it is to conjure up any compassion for the picture's passive-aggressive, egocentric ostensive protagonist.









    SEARCH SPLICEDwire
     
    powered by FreeFind
    SPLICEDwire home
    Online Film Critics Society
    ©SPLICEDwire
    All Rights Reserved
    Return to top
    Current Reviews
    SPLICEDwire Home