Loose Cannons (Mine Vaganti) (2010) directed by Ferzan Ozpetek

[reviews_and_ramblings]

Director: Ferzan Ozpetek

Writers: Ferzan Ozpetek (writer) &
Ivan Cotroneo (writer)

Release Date: 13 February 2010 (Berlin International Film Festival, Germany)
12 March 2010 (Italy)

Genre: Drama

Plot: This fiery comedy from director Ferzan Ozpetek finds young Tommaso (Riccardo Scamarcio) about to reveal to his large, frenetic Italian family that he's gay. But he's beaten to the punch by his older brother, who is promptly disinherited by their furious father. Tommaso is then put in charge of the family's pasta factory, and while he tries hard to be a successful businessman, it's difficult for him to hide his true feelings.

"Do not ever listen to other people tell you who you ought to love or hate. Wrong on your own, always." It's the advice the elderly grandmother give to her nephew Tommaso coming back home from Rome and decided to assert his personal choices even if it means clashing with the family. Tommaso's family, the youngest son of the owners of a pasta factory in Puglia, is large and extravagant. At home they are long waiting for his return: his long ago rebel grandmother, trapped in the memory of an unrequited love, mom Stefania, loving but stifled by middle-class convention, father Vincenzo, disappointed in his expectations on his children, aunt Luciana, to say the least eccentric, his sister Elana, trying to escape a destiny of housekeeping, his brother Antonio, who he has to help in the management of the family business. Together with them Alba, whose road crosses the one of the Cantone family. There are also surprising revelations and plot twists. And so Tommaso will have to stay much longer than expected ... Director Ozpetek, who wrote the script with Ivan Cotroneo, said: "With this movie, after years, I cast a look, hopefully more mature but also more funny, to the big theme of the family. A theme that despite the social transformations remains more mysterious and exciting than ever."

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Cast (in credits order)
Riccardo Scamarcio ... Tommaso
Alessandro Preziosi ... Antonio
Carmine Recano ... Marco
Daniele Pecci ... Andrea
Gianluca De Marchi ... Davide
Mauro Bonaffini ... Massimiliano
Nicole Grimaudo ... Alba
Lunetta Savino ... Stefania
Ennio Fantastichini ... Vincenzo
Elena Sofia Ricci ... Luciana
Ilaria Occhini ... La nonna
Bianca Nappi ... Elena
Carolina Crescentini ... Nonna da giovane
Massimiliano Gallo ... Salvatore
Paola Minaccioni ... Teresa
Emanuela Gabrieli ... Giovanna
Giorgio Marchesi ... Nicola
Matteo Taranto ... Domenico
Gea Martire ... Patrizia
Giancarlo Monticelli ... Brunetti
Crescenza Guarnieri ... Antonietta
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dario Bandiera


Tommaso & Antonio


Marco & Andrea


Davide & Massimiliano

Comments

[elisa-rolle.livejournal.com]

This is fresh out of the oven, I went yesterday to see it in the theatre and it was fantastic to see it. This last week Mine Vaganti (Loose Cannons) gained more than Alice in the Wonderful! How was it possible? Simple, Ferzan Ozpetek used his old and successful method: take a sex symbol, and actor that is the dream of every woman, and whose sexuality is not in question, and cast him in a gay role. In Il Bagno Turco (Hamam) was Alesssandro Gassman, in Le fate ignoranti (His Secret Life) was Stefano Accorsi (again in Saturno contro (Saturn in Opposition)), La finestra di fronte (Facing Window) was Raoul Bova. And here? Not one but TWO sex symbol, like Riccardo Scamarcio (Tommaso) and Alessandro Preziosi (Antonio), in the roles of two brothers, both gay, who need (really need) to come out with their family. So deep is in Italy way to not talk of "these things", that not Tommaso or Antonio know about each other, and when younger Tommaso trusts his older brother Antonio his desire to do coming out with the family and then go back living with his lover Marco, far from the South of Italy and the restriction of the family, Antonio beats him on the finish line, revealing his more than 20 years old homosexuality, his hidden away lover, and literally runs away, leaving Tommaso, for once, to face the reality of living inside the loving but constricting arms of their family.

I liked a lot the movie, it was at the same time serious and funny, but sincerely, I liked more Antonio's character, even if he was the one who lied for 20 years, or maybe right for that. Tommaso comes out to me (no pun intended) like a spoiled brat, who until now, has no eyes if not for what he wanted to see. He is also the one that, in the end, is not even sure of what he really wants, I'm not sure to see an happily and gay ever after for him in the future, that instead I see for Antonio.