Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Sorrentino's impressively confident second feature manages to be entertaining, pleasingly intelligent and surprisingly substantial. It centres on Titta, a quiet, smart, very serious and very secretive 60-year-old Italian who lives anonymously and pretty joylessly in a Swiss lakeside hotel. Expert in shady finance but not in affairs of the heart, he keeps his cards close to his chest, too wary even to speak to the beautiful hotel barmaid Sofia ... until odd figures from his past start turning up at the hotel.

Kicking off as a genuinely squewed character study before taking an agreeable turn into the realms of romantic crime-thriller, this contrives to blend comedy, suspense and understated sentiment to intriguing and witty effect. A delight.

Geoff Andrew, Time Out