02 November 2009
The prolific Michael Winterbottom’s latest film Genova is promising.
Colin Firth plays a US-based academic who loses his wife in a car accident and takes his two daughters to Genoa, where he hopes to heal their grieving spirits.
He is supported by the wonderful Catherine Keener who plays a boldly and brilliantly unlikable ex-girlfriend who guides them around the eerie and atmospheric alleyways of Genova’s Ancient Town.
Willa Holland and Perla Haney-Jardine play his teenage and younger daughter with both managing to brilliantly inhabit their various warring personas.
Haney-Jardine especially delivers a fine performance as the young Mary who continues to have visions of her dead mother.
It should all add up to a powerful film. But Winterbottom feels like he is trying too hard to create the sense of foreboding and menace of Don’t Look Now and while the cinematography is impressive, atmosphere is only part of a story.
Three Stars
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