Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

tao902 The film follows two Italian brothers growing up in the 1960s and 70s. They both love the same girl but have very different political beliefs; Accio is a fascist, Manrico is a communist. Predictably the main themes are politics, romance and family. We see the brothers battling over their ideologies, relationships and their parents' attempts to guide them through their emergence into adulthood.A very interesting story idea but it goes nowhere. It lacks depth, insights and fails to be believable. The film tells the story in a contrived, clichéd, predictable way and is ultimately cynical in the roles the characters are given and how they are expected to carry them out.

Joe Our little film here is a coming of age tale of one young man's developing maturity from youth as a deluded fascist to a more left-ish political slant. The film title refers to an old Italian song, and in the context of the film refers to his older brother who is a strong willed communist activist (although there is a sister also who like the family as a whole is quite left-ish).The film is really a feel good movie and it's humour all the way. The brothers may bicker but there is love between them despite any conflicts. Add in a mild love triangle with the elder brother's lady, and you have a real hodge podge reflecting the complications of youth for our lead man.As much as you'll enjoy the film for its humour, there is still something missing. The story with its material could have said so much more. There are lots of good characters but you never feel it builds up to enough. The film never seems to challenge any of the views on screen. Feels like an opportunity lost somehow.Beautifully filmed with great acting, you will enjoy the film. Great acting from the ensemble adds to the experience, but I just wish that we'd been given more in the story that was served up. However I still enjoyed it.

gradyharp MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD ('Mio fratello è figlio unico') is a title that may confuse the casual movie viewer, but it is an apt summation of the rigorous story that this excellent Italian film by Danielle Luchetti (adapted from a novel by Antonio Pennacchi) represents - the coming of age of two brothers in the confusing and turbulent 1960's and 1970's in Italy. While the film deals with the myriad political factions that disrupted life especially among the students of that era, the main focus of the story is the indomitable brotherly love that bonds the two main characters. Accio Benano (Vittorrio Emanuele Popizo) as a child is a mischief maker who has entered seminary to become a priest, but his innate search for truth and meaning soon finds him returning home to his little family in a Mussolini-fabricated town called Latina, a village built on promises of communal well-being (a housing project was built but the poor villagers are refused access to it), but languishes in the poverty of lost hopes and deflated spirits. Accio's father, mother, younger sister and older brother Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) are making ends meet, but are frustrated with the political oppression of the working class. Time passes and the older Accio (Elio Germano) comes under the influence of Mussolini's 'idealism' with the tutelage of his older friend Mario (Luca Zingaretti) and embraces Fascism while Manrico has aligned with the communists, and it is this dichotomy of belief that sets Accio apart from his brother as well as his family who are communist sympathizers. Accio's personality places him in harms way with the law, with women (he has longings for the women in both Mario's and Manrico's lives), and ultimately with turns of events that threaten to pit brother against brother. The resolution of these conflicts makes for a fascinating study of familial ties, brotherly love, and a keenly observed sociopolitical history of Italy that is as enlightening as it is entertaining. While Germano and Scamarcio are the obvious stars of this well acted film, the supporting cast (including such fine actors as Angela Finocchiaro, Massimo Popolizio, Alba Rohrwacher, Anna Bonaiuto, and Diane Fleri) is uniformly strong. This epic film demands full attention to the script (Italian with English subtitles) to follow the various political differences, but the tenor of the film is one of the excitement and concomitant love of two brothers coming of age in the best Italian style! It is a joy to watch and a lesson in history about which we should all be aware. Grady Harp

primodanielelori I rushed to see this movie, with Elio Germano, perhaps the best Italian actor of his generation, and Riccardo Scamarcio, the heartthrob of the moment. I got upset about the rejection from the snobbish Cannes Festival and I wanted to see the film by myself. Now, after having seen it, unfortunately, I have to agree with the Cannes decision. The film is a tired rehash of other books/films/TV done indifferently and boringly with two saving graces: Elio Germano's and Angela Finocchiaro's performances. The rest is, quite frankly, unendurable. The film felt long, long, long and I got more and more impatient and eventually angry with the whole thing. The Italian cinema that once was a power force of inspiring themes and ideas seems to have arrived to a total dead stop. The artists, I feel, with something new to say, like Libero Di Rienzo - have you seen his "Sangue" with Elio Germano as well? No, I bet you haven't. It was released in secrecy and for my money, his movie had something new to say in a totally new exciting way. I fear we, in Italy, can't move forward because we're trapped in some king of structure that it's terrified of new ideas. As a consequence we have films like this one. A throw back to the past and not in a nice way. Cannes? Are you nuts?