I very much enjoyed this movie, BUT when it was over I had to think about it for a while to try to figure out exactly what happened! This is a movie about a gang of tomb robbers and their attempts to unload their found artifacts. I studied archaeology in college, so I have a pretty good background in the subject. That may have been detrimental to my enjoyment. I kept seeing things on the screen that I'm highly skeptical of, like the ease of selling stolen artifacts. It is a crime to sell stolen artifacts in Italy. All found artifacts belong to the State. If you're going to sell an artifact, you have to be able to prove where you got it from and that its provenance is legitimate. The Italian government is relentless in its pursuit of black-market artifacts and the prosecution of those who deal in them. The Italian government does not give up, even if it takes decades. (A case in point is the notorious deal where New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, under the leadership of Thomas Hoving, purchased a stolen ancient Greek ceremonial drinking vessel for several million dollars that they ultimately had to return to Italy. You can look this up on the Internet.) But even aside from things like that, there were several things that were simply unclear. One important female character was allegedly hiding "her" children under her employer's bed. Unlikely. Then later on, she seemed to be running an orphans' home. What was that all about? And where did she get the money to do that? One important character was never seen! But I still enjoyed the movie, which was constantly surprising me. The actors were all interesting and convincing, even though they must have had to jump through a lot of mental hoops to justify their characters' actions. The only cast member I was familiar with was Isabella Rossellini, whom I did not recognize! She played an old woman in a wheelchair. I thought this movie was a lot of fun, even if farfetched. I recommend seeing it with friends so you can discuss it among yourselves afterward and try to figure it out.
Review of La Chimera
