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Respiro

Valeria Golino portrays a beautiful and unpredictable wife and mother.

FILM FACTS

Starring: Valeria Golino
Director: Emanuele Crialese
Rating: PG-13 for discreet sexual situations
Genre: Drama, Foreign

Discuss this film | Official movie site

See showtimes (PG-13) 95 minutes

Grade: B

Verdict: Valeria Golino proves she can act as good as she looks.

By ELEANOR RINGEL GILLESPIE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Valeria Golino is another in a long line of talented actresses who left good careers in their native countries and came to Hollywood, where they were quickly robbed of their individuality. Think of the pre-"Frida" Salma Hayek (spunky cutie pie) or Penelope Cruz, who went from playing Pedro Almodovar's kind of woman to playing generic sexy girlfriends. Golino's career pinnacle, Hollywood-style, meant being Tom Cruise's girlfriend in "Rain Man" and Pee-wee Herman's in "Big Top Pee-wee."

Finally, Golino has gotten the chance to show the charisma and talent that goes with her extraordinary beauty. In "Respiro," a tale of fish, family and free spirits, she's Grazia, the most beautiful thing (aside from the sparkling water and bleached white cliffs) on the luscious island of Lampedusa, off Sicily.

Grazia has two sons, Pasquale (Francesco Casisa), who appears to be 12 or 13, and Filippo (Filippo Pucillo), who's about 10. Her handsome, virile husband, Pietro (Vincenzo Amato), makes his living as a fisherman, like almost everyone else on the island. All three adore her, but she also makes them nervous. Very.

Spirited, sensual and independent, Grazia is also moody and unpredictable. She embarrasses her sons by going skinny-dipping in the ocean, outrages the town by releasing dozens of wild dogs, and is generally a provocative presence, whatever she does. Pietro's relatives want her sent to a doctor in Milan. Says one, "She's either too happy or too sad."

As it turns out, this is not just old biddies being envious. In one scene down at the docks, Grazia begins twirling herself in a fishing net. Suddenly, instead of giddy, she seems truly mad, like Ophelia handing out rosemary for remembrance. It's a moment of startling clarity that turns the film into something more than another salute to the poetry of insanity.

Golino is wonderful -- ripely seductive yet playfully winsome. Abruptly switching from rhapsodic child to raging hysteric, she keeps us off-balance, using the character's capriciousness as a kind of ticking time bomb.

Director Emanuele Crialese has a lot of things going on in his film. Along with Grazia's story, he shows us the life of the island. In the village, the men catch the fish, the women clean them. In the nearby hills, roving bands of feral boys -- like the ones who ate Montgomery Clift in "Suddenly, Last Summer" -- play cruel tricks on one another. Closer to home, the relationship between Grazia and Pasquale smacks of Oedipal longings and a devoted son's desire to protect his mother from everything, including herself.

"Respiro" strives for something more mythic than it achieves. Plus, at times, it can feel lightweight and too dependent on its seductive setting. Still, there are a lot worse ways to spend time at a movie than basking in sun, sea and sensuality. And Golino's Grazia, whatever her mood, is compelling company.