Sergio Rubini directed one of my favorite Italian films of the last few years "La Terra". This new venture however is a massive let down. The idea of an art critic determined to destroy an artist is, was and always will be a good idea for a dark thriller. Here the opportunities are wasted in a series of unconvincing moments promising a lot and delivering nothing.. Well photographed and with a Brian de Palmaish score by the great Pino Donaggio but at its very core a total emptiness. The script is constructed by the numbers but ignoring the most important aspect: the diabolical plan of the critic is told in snippets without ever going into it. The film falls in most of the traps that lowers the standards of the Italian cinema. A gratuitous naked scene by the beautiful Miss Puccini and a series of miscalculated moments that rob the film of any real tension or suspense. Instead it makes it a tedious uninteresting tale of two egos. Rubini has fun with his devilish monster and Riccardo Scamarcio proves that he has a lot to learn. His face becomes tiresome instead of compelling. We just don't believe any of it and as a consequence we don't care. The most interesting character is Claudio, the artist's best friend but ultimately the character is treated like a plot device without a dimension of his own. At a certain moment the critic claims that mediocre artists imitate and that great artists steal. What was doing Sergio Rubini here? Imitating or stealing?
