HAND OF GOD – Review

Memory can be a powerful thing. The vivid autobiographical tale from Oscar-winning writer/director Paolo Sorrentino, THE HAND OF GOD is a coming-of-age tale about an awkward teenage boy growing up in 1980s Naples, a sun-splashed, gritty, quirky place where he is surrounded by loving family and colorful characters, a place where the mundane and the magical exist side-by-side. Soccer and cinema are his obsessions but fate or luck – the hand of God – steps in and shapes the direction of his life.

Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) lives with his parents Saverio Schisa (Toni Servillo) and Maria Schisa (Teresa Saponangelo), older brother Marchino Schisa (Marlon Joubert) and a sister we never see because she is always in the bathroom, sharing an apartment near the the port city’s old harbor. They, and Fabietto’s extended family, are a talkative, entertaining lot, and the teen lives in a world of family and warmth filled with colorful characters, and the striking quirkiness of the place and the time.

Humor and heartbreak suffuse Sorrentino’s autobiographical film. THE HAND OF GOD is a glorious mix of joy tempered with tragedy, a story packed with colorful, out-sized characters, and filled with wild tales and warm family ones, all presented through ravishingly beautiful images by cinematographer Daria D’Antonio.

Sorrentino is famous for the bold cinematic style of his films, on full display in his Oscar-winning THE GREAT BEAUTY, IL DIVO and other films. In THE HAND OF GOD, Sorrentino’s most personal film, his usual flamboyant visual style is more muted, to put the focus on the characters. Muted but not absent, as there are plenty of moments of the magical.

An opening scene encapsulates some of the film’s mundane and magical dichotomy, with a sequence where a beautiful woman, waiting for a bus on a busy, nighttime street, is called over by a rotund man in a limo claiming to be San Gennero (Enzo Decaro), the patron saint of Naples. He is offering a ride and a promise to meet the “Little Monk,” a Neapolitan myth, and claims to know her secret sorrow, that she does not have a child. What follows feels like something out of Fellini, until she returns to the real world, dropped off on a dim street.

Reality or fantasy? The beautiful woman is Fabietto’s Aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri), whom he adores. Patrizia is a sad, half-mad woman with an unconscious sexiness, who longs for a child and fears her abusive, jealous husband. Luisa Ranieri is haunting as Patrizia, whose unthinking sexiness and pervasive sadness, touches her sensitive nephew. Memorable characters, touching ones like the aunt or bizarre ones like to scornful mother-in-law who wears her fur coat to a picnic, populate this marvelous film.

And what characters they are, starting with Fabietto’s parents. Teresa Saponangelo is wonderful as the teen’s playful mother Maria, a prankster prone to practical jokes and occasionally juggling. She and Fabietto’s father Saverio, played with charm and dignity by Toni Servillo, are still in love, and whistle to each other in a distinctive way as an expression of that love.

The teen is close to his older brother, played masterfully by Marlon Joubert. Fabietto’s handsome, outgoing brother Marchino longs to be an actor, even trying out for a role as an extra for Federico Fellini at one point, but he seems to lose energy as time goes on. Betty Pedrazzi is marvelous as the Baronessa, the family’s imperious older neighbor. Biagio Manna’s bold speedboat-driving smuggler Armando zooms into the picture and takes Fabietto for a wild ride.

There are crazy scenes and quiet ones, and the story unfolds in a rambling style as does real life. One highlight is a sequence where the extended family gathers for a summer-time picnic, and all manner of craziness happens. The delightful comic sequence has the flavor of a oft-told family tale.

Fabietto is obsessed with movies, soccer and, of course, sex. In the 1980s, everyone in Naples is obsessed with soccer and with legendary soccer star Diego Maradona, who is rumored to be considering a move to the more working class city’s more modest team. At one point, the boy meets a filmmaker, Antonio Capuano (Ciro Carpano), who was Sorrentino’s actual mentor, but not until much later, after a tragic event provides a turning point in the boy’s life. Both the director and the soccer star play pivotal roles in the boy’s life, as he heads towards adult life.

While some parts of this tale are based on real events, the director cautions us that the line is blurred between fact and fiction, This is the world as he imagines it, as he wants to remember it, narrative fiction, not documentary. Fact or fiction, or some of both, THE HAND OF GOD certainly is a marvelous experience, one of the director’s best and perhaps his most accessible.

THE HAND OF GOD, in Italian with English subtitles, opens nationally Friday, Dec. 3 in select theaters, Dec. 10 at Landmark’s Plaza Frontenac Cinema and Dec. 15 streaming on Netflix.

RATING: 4 out of 4 stars