Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on rockin’ flatscreen.
Nanni Moretti seems like a really nice guy. He seems like someone it would be fun to hang out with or live next door to. I always get that impression from him, and got it just as strongly while watching La Stanza del Figlio (The Son’s Room). This is a film that plays like an Italian version of Ordinary People, and yet in many ways, it is more emotionally satisfying rather than shattering.
Giovanni Sermonti (director and co-writer Nanni Moretti) is a successful therapist who spends his days listening to the banalities of his patients’ lives. While some have more interesting problems than others, he is not the sort of therapist who treats non-functional schizophrenics or psychotics. No, he deals with people who have strange compulsions or obsessive thoughts, and while some may be prurient or interesting, they’re mostly pretty typical. He is an active father and husband and spends a lot of time with his wife Paola (Laura Morante), son Andrea (Giuseppe Sanfelice) and daughter Irene (Jasmine Trinca). And this is the first third of the film, a pleasant look at this fairly normal family.
