The Hand of God

Watch this movie if you don't care about wasting 2 hours of your life. One of my biggest cinematographic disappointments to date. The movie is monotonous, flat and pointless. The only interesting narrative arcs are unexplained and the overall experience of watching this movie is dreadful. Frustrating.

This movie is never a good movie. Sorrentino tries to show the nostalgic moments of his life. But why does he not succeed? Why are we so tired of watching this movie? This is a personal film that no one will enjoys watching exept Paolo sorrentino and people of Naples . Sorrentino shows many characters in the film but never gets close to any of them. We only see strange people whose behavior is really not normal like normally people . It seems that Italian cinema is still under Fellini's shadow. This movie is a bad copy of Amarcord by Fellini . Even Cinema Paradiso is much much better than The hand of God. I really do not understand what will happen if we remove Maradona from this film? Nothing ! Like so many other characters in this movie , if they weren't, nothing would have happened. It is very strange that this film has nominated for Oscar award . If you suffer from insomnia, watch this movie. You will fall asleep after twenty minutes .

I saw this at a local film festival. The opening scene starts with a tracking shot that shows a mystery car but keeps going to some islands. That seemed like a misdirection right at the start. The real opening scene with the mad aunt, the fairy saint of Naples and the little Monk in a tumbling down palace complete with oversize chandelier hinted at some whimsy and magic but alas it is a prompt for domestic strife when Aunt goes home late to her husband. The next scene with Fabio and his parents on the scooter is joyful and they de-escalate the drama. Mad Aunt is Fabiettos mothers sister. There are a number of other scenes but the best are at the family picnic, the swim and the boat ride back. When we finally get towards the end Fabietto meets the director who shouts every line. I much preferred "the Great Beauty" which has a few more magical scenes than this. What is also of interest is that the film is going to be released on Netflix very soon and so its theatrical run will be super short. I enjoyed watching it on the big screen but it seems like a few scenes involving the little monk would have wrapped it up better. It needed more magic and less TV sitcom filler.