[HUMAN CAPITAL
screens Thursday February 26th at 6:45 pm and Friday February 27th at
7:15 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]
Review by Bob
Ignizio
HUMAN CAPITAL begins
with a cyclist being struck in a hit and run by an SUV. It then
rewinds 6 months to tell the seemingly unconnected story of Dino
(Fabrizio Bentivoglio), a middle class shlub who dreams of joining
the ranks of Italy's wealthy elite. And he just may have an “in”,
since his daughter Serena (Matilde Gioli) is dating Massimiliano
(Guglielmo Pinelli), the spoiled son of an investor, Giovanni
(Fabrizio Gifuni), and his ex-actress turned bored housewife Carla
(Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).
Dino
manages to use his daughter's connections (and his usefulness to
Giovanni as a tennis partner) to finagle his way into Giovanni's
latest investment, but since he doesn't have the cash he has to
mortgage his home and business to get it, unbeknownst to his
psychiatrist wife Roberta (Valeria Golino), who as it turns out has
just discovered she's pregnant. We then see the events that led up to
the accident from the beginning of the film at which point the film
goes back in time again, switching perspectives first to Carla's, and
then to Serena's.
Seeing
what each character knows fills in important gaps in the narrative
until the mystery of who struck the cyclist is finally revealed. As
engrossing as that mystery is on its own, it's the themes beneath the
surface narrative that make HUMAN CAPITAL
more than just an enjoyable crime tale. What could have been soapy
fluff is actually a biting look at money and power that critiques
the super rich and those willing to throw ethics out the window to
join their ranks, all the while asking just what kind of price tag
can be put on a human life. A depressingly small one, as it turns
out.
The
performances are all first rate, creating characters who are
interesting enough to invest in even if none of them seems quite
worthy of rooting for. Even the most grounded of the main
protagonists, Serena, winds up showing some moral failings of her
own. Director Paolo Virzì brings considerable style and flair to the
proceedings, utilizing lots of camera movement and making the most of
his film's set design, but without getting so showy as to get in the
way of the story or its themes. 3 ½ out of 4 stars.
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