07-07-14 Don't Tell (La Bestia nel cuore) (2005)

Seen: July 7th, 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 3
I have no idea what prompted me to rent this. It was probably a recommenadation on Netflix. It was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award.
I wish I'd paid more attention.
The protagonist of this film is a woman, an unsuccessful actress who finds herself doing voice acting, dubbing TV shows into Italian. Her boyfriend is an actor who views himself as a serious actor. He's doing theater, wants to do film, and is offered a TV series job, which he eventually takes. The TV series director wants to be making a film, which he fantasized about.
These characters basically represent this film. It wants to be a serious and important piece of work, but really it's just a recycled TV melodrama.
The issues presented here are real and important. But they're also the fodder for a dozen daytime dramas and talk shows. To succeed in this realm, a film needs to have great writing, acting and direction. None of those are present here.
The whole affair feels like a badly wrought TV miniseries, only mercifully shorter. The metaphors are broad and simple. The characters are as well. While deep issues are supposed to dwell in them, they are exceptionally devoid of actual character. The one exception here is the blind, lesbian weaver, suffering from unrequited love and mouldering away in her cave, isolated from humanity. That's not a joke, and she's the most interesting character in the film.
All the melodrama might be more tolerable if were broken up with moments of humanity or prehaps the odd bit of comedic relief. The only one I can remember is near the end of the film. The material is so heavy that it simply sinks under it's own weight.
The presentation is all bit of a mess as well. The editing and camaera work makes this feel like TV. The can only recall one shot I found interesting.
This film won a number of awards in Italy, so perhaps there's a cultural imperitve that makes it relevant. But unless you're Italian or a particularly enamored of Italian film or melodrama, I'd avoid this one.
The Good: One interesting character
The Bad: TV talk show themes
The Ugly: Overblown melodrama