Uno su due

At this point in the Italian series at Lincoln Center it was a relief just to encounter a film about real people involved in situations one could care about. 'One Out of Two' ('Uno su due') is about chances—or at least the title is—and it takes some chances itself, risking banality or sentimentality, and coming through with a film worth seeing. The lives and people Cappuccio depicts are plausible, and he makes them engaging and specific. His 'I Truly Respect You' was shown in the series two years ago, a corporate comedy about alternative lives. This time the contemporary urban existence is again in the foreground, but this is about one man, his life, and what he can do with it.

The hero is Lorenzo (Fabio Volo, an appealing everyman who slightly resembles the young Jack Lennon), a guy who has everything going for him—great job, beautiful girlfriend, best pal as a partner, amazing apartment, prospect of making millions of euros—and then all of a sudden he collapses in the street. He winds up in the neurosurgery section of a hospital and as he awaits the results of tests, realizes that his whole life is changed. There is a beautiful little performance by former Pasolini protégé Ninetto Davoli as Giovanni, a Roman truck driver who as Lorenzo's hospital roommate reveals a deep understanding of what makes Lorenzo tick and how this kind of situation must be faced. Giovanni has not lived a good life himself, but faced with serious illness, he has grown up and become a real mensch.

Samuel Johnson famously said, "Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully." Likewise, the knowledge that one has one chance out of two of having a fatal condition makes one reconsider one's life and one's values. This homely lesson could lead to cliché and sentimentality and often does. The secret is how much wit and specificity a writer and a filmmaker can introduce to make such a story work, and Cappuccio's previous film, though a bit labored, wasn't short on good humor.

"Rattenuto" is Lorenzo's sister's coinage for how he and she have been whenever they get together. What she means by it is a combination of shrunken and held back—in his case, probably by an all-consuming focus on a glorious future at the expense of the present. Yes, Lorenzo's threat of illness is going to make him live in the moment. After he's released from the hospital he's lost at home for a while. His girlfriend senses that he has no use for her and she leaves his beautiful apartment (not yet paid for) with its expansive view of the city of Genoa. He is lost.

Then Lorenzo goes to the office where he confronts his longtime friend and law partner Paolo (Giuseppe Battiston) about the big deal they've been planning with the Russians which is going to make them filthy rich. That turns out to be an illusion, for now anyway, and shortly thereafter Lorenzo has borrowed his sister's car and gone on a trip.

This isn't Kurosawa's 'Ikiru': 'One of Two' hasn't that sort of profundity and scope, but Lorenzo, like Kurosawa's Mr. Watanabe, may not have long to live, and he wants to do something decent and worthwhile. He goes to Umbria. Lorenzo's journey is transformative, yet delightfully specific. He meets a young woman and her mother. He does something physically risky and thrilling that he's never done before. He gets caught in a heavy rainstorm and stays up all night. He brings some people together who had forgotten how much thy love each other. And, of course, he lets go—stops being "rattenuto" and begins to smile. Davoli reappears briefly, but mainly his early appearances are simply a good memory that hovers over this appealing little film. There are some longeurs, but they are forgivable, because after all this story is about stopping and taking a look at things. This is not extraordinary film-making, and there's nothing especially unique about the style, but this is straightforward, honest work, about things that matter. And the film is brightened not just by the iconic performance by Davoli, but by the appealing presence of Fabio Volo, and the others in the cast, notably Tresy Taddei as the young woman. Another nice feature is a fresh soundtrack that avoids being cute or saccharine even though it uses Burt Bacharach in a way that sounds like elevator music.

Shown as part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema series at Lincoln Center, June 2007.