Life Is Short: July 2013

Life Is Short is an as-needed series documenting the films we just couldn't make it through. We like to refer to these movies as "Damsels in Distress." A previous entry is here. 

SOME FILMS require an inordinate amount of attention -- multiple characters, complicated historical touchstones, flashbacks, subtitles. "Il Divo" (2008) has all of that. This pulpy biopic of seven-time Italy leader Giulio Andreotti, a legend in the nation's post-war politics, is lavishly filmed and smartly acted.

But right around the one-third mark, I was adrift and hopelessly outmatched. In the first 10 minutes or so, writer/director Paolo Sorrentino (who more recently presented Sean Penn as a washed-up goth rocker) introduces about a dozen characters in succession, with screen titles providing their names, nicknames and titles. Andreotti himself, we're told, has about a half-dozen nicknames.

At that critical 38-minute mark, three of those men have a dense conversation about the inside politics of the day, and I realized that I didn't remember who they were, and I couldn't recall whether the Christian Democrats were Andreotti's party or not. Throw in some flashbacks and star Toni Sevillo's distracting makeup, and my breaking point was reached.

The film (at least the first third of it) is elegantly rendered, especially a scene of Il Divo striding regally across a vast black-and-white checkerboard entryway and encountering a fluffy white cat, which has one green eye and one blue eye. In other scenes, Sorrentino's camera swirls and swoops with flair. He has a touch like that of Martin Scorsese or Guy Ritchie.

I admit, I have my limitations when it comes to intellect and attention span. Alas, ciao, Il divo.

Title: IL DIVO
Running Time: 117 MIN
Elapsed Time at Plug Pull: 38 MIN
Portion Watched: 32%
My Age at Time of Viewing: 50 YRS, 7.5 MO.
Average Male American Lifespan: 81.2 YRS.
Watched/Did Instead: "... And Justice for All" (1979) on THIS-TV
Odds of Re-viewing This Title: 4-1