SLIFF 2014 Review – HUMAN CAPITAL

HUMAN CAPITAL screens at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinemas on Friday, November 21 at 9:05 PM and on Sunday, November 23 at 6;40 PM as part of the 23rd Annual Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival.

For 11/23 ticket information go here.

Director Paolo Virzi uses a multiple Point of View (POV) approach on this story of a tragedy, that’s not as simple as you (or the authorities investigating) might believe. As it opens, we’re at a school auditorium as the caterers and servers are cleaning up after a pre-Christmas celebration. One veteran waiter hops upon his bicycle and peddles away on the dark, snowy streets. A blind curve and slick roads are the recipe for disaster as a speeding van clips the cyclist and speeds off. The movie shifts six months to the first chapter: the story of hapless Dino, the middle class owner of a small travel shop. He’s dropping off his daughter Serena at her boyfriend’s plush family villa. The villa’s owner, a high-profile investor, is short a man for the doubles match. Dino’s was pretty good with a racket in college and joins them. Turns out he likes rubbing shoulders with the one percenters and tries to buy into a sure return. The next chapter concerns the investor’s bored, neglected trophy wife Carla. And the final chapter comes back around to Dino’s teenage daughter Serena. Besides the hit-and-run, the tale touches upon extortion, deceit, deception, drug trafficking, scandal, and theatre restoration! There’s a lot going on in that little Italian village in those few months.

The film is most rewarding for alert viewers as several odd moments are revisited and explained. We’ve seen this flashback and flash forward structure used before from PULP FICTION to CRASH from Paul Haggis, but Virzi puts a fresh new spin on it thanks to a very clever script he co-wrote and an excellent cast including Valeria Golino (RAIN MAN) as Dino’s nurturing social worker wife and Valeria Bruno Tedeschi as a very desperate housewife. It’s a terrific commentary on the class system and a compelling ‘whodunit’. And that Italian countryside looks gorgeous in June and December. HUMAN CAPITAL is an engrossing cinematic puzzle.