Le chiavi di casa (2004)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Gianni Amelio

Writers:

Giuseppe Pontiggia (novel)
Stefano Rulli (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

10 September 2004 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Meeting his handicapped son for the first time, a young father attempts to forge a relationship with the teenager.

Plot Keywords:

Hospital | Friendship | Muscular Dystrophy | Love | Father Son Relationship

Awards:

10 wins & 14 nominations

Cast

Kim Rossi Stuart	...	Gianni
Charlotte Rampling	...	Nicole
Andrea Rossi	...	Paolo
Alla Faerovich	...	Nadine
Pierfrancesco Favino	...	Alberto
Manuel Katzy	...	Taxi driver
Michael Weiss	...	Andreas
Ingrid Appenroth	...	Hospital warden
Dimitri Süsin	...	Boy watching TV
Thorsten Schwarz	...	Male nurse
Eric Neumann	...	Playground boy
Dirk Zippa	...	Young man on wheelchair
Barbara Koster-Chari	...	Nurse
Anita Bardeleben	...	Doctor
Ralf Schlesener	...	Newspaper seller

Also Known As:

The Keys to the House (Australia) (Canada: English title) (International: English title) (UK) (USA)
Die Hausschlüssel (Germany)
Les clefs de la maison (France)
The House Keys

Runtime:

105 min | UK:111 min | Australia:111 min

Country:

Italy | France | Germany

Language:

Italian | German | French | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Brazil:12 (Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival) | Brazil:14 | Germany:o.Al. | Australia:PG | France:U | USA:PG | Italy:T | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG | Ireland:PG

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Company:

ACHAB Film

Trivia:

In order to win the confidence of the normally withdrawn Andrea Rossi, director Gianni Amelio began working with him almost 6 months before shooting started.

Soundtrack:

Deus Do Fogo E Da Justiça

Charlotte makes the difference

"Le Chiavi di Casa" is a strangely unmoving film, considering its potentially heart- melting subject: it had all the elements to make you dehydrate out of crying, and yet it leaves you distant. It sure isn't the fault of funny, uplifting, charming young Andrea Rossi, who plays Paolo -- that boy is utterly inspiring (as he must certainly be in real life) full of joy. But the script is filled with annoying idiosyncrasies -- they make you go "naah!" when you should be swept up in the story. How can the father not go looking for his lost, disabled son in a foreign city and instead chooses that precise moment to tell his life story to a woman he's barely met? And what about him throwing the boy's walker at sea? Or leaving the boy alone at the hotel? Or stealing him away from physical therapy? Or not even asking his wife about his new-born baby back home? Was there EVER a more inept father?

These inconsistencies are enhanced by Kim Rossi Stuart's frustrating, uncharismatic performance: he's like a top model lost in a gritty drama -- handsome but shallow, bordering on moronic. You know you're in trouble from the very opening scene, when you cannot believe the film will drop Pierfrancesco Favino (who plays the boy's uncle) with his great rugged macho looks, and stick with Rossi Stuart's insipid blandness (was that a pleonasm?).

Anyway, the point of this review is to praise Charlotte Rampling: what an actress she has become over the years! Film after film, she graces us with memorable performances, from "Sous le Sable" and "Swimming Pool" to "Lemming" and the otherwise insufferable "Vers le Sud" and now "Le Chiave...". She has reached this age when her (natural, face-lift-free) face is so rich and lived in that she can build a flesh-and-blood character with one look and one half-smile. In her very first scene, we feel at once we KNOW that life-beaten mother. Her "big" scene (where she reveals her tormented thoughts about her severely disabled daughter) is the most heart-wrenching thing in the whole movie -- you can totally sympathize with her obvious but "controlled" grief and her "living day-by-day" philosophy. You see a woman who's cried every single tear out of her body through the long years of devotion to her daughter, her youth and hopes lost along the way. You can understand her envy of mothers whose children have had better results from therapy than her own daughter, and even understand her mixed feelings about her daughter's attachment to life ("Perché non muore?"). Her performance is so good it makes her lines sound better -- even if her Italian is less than fluent -- than anything else in the script.

My vote: 6 stars out of 10, though most of them are for Charlotte and young Andrea Rossi. If you happen to have a disabled relative or friend that you take care of (or care about), that rating certainly goes up.