Quiet Chaos ( Caos calmo )

Two middle-aged brothers - Pietro (Nanni Moretti) and Carlo (Alessandro Gassman) - play ball on the beach when suddenly two women yell for help while in the ocean. The brothers risk their lives to save the two women, only to find that the women don't even thank them. When the Paladini brothers drive back to Pietro's home, they discover that in their absence Pietro's wife has fallen and died. Pietro's 10-year-old daughter Claudia (Blu Yoshimi) is distraught and asks her father why he was not at home to save his wife. After a quiet funeral Pietro enters an existence of 'quiet chaos', neglecting his duties as a successful executive, choosing instead to sit on the bench across from Claudia's school, waiting each day in numbed silence for his daughter's completion of classes in order to drive her home. His only goal, despite various interruptions from passers-by and family members in incidents both humorous and distractingly serious, is to be there for Claudia, visible through her school window, to reassure her of his constant presence. How Pietro gradually figures out his grief, the world, and his place in it, discovering a new relationship with Claudia, forms the story line of this tender film.

Director Antonello Grimaldi, working with a screenplay adaptation of Sandro Veronesi's book by Veronesi and Nanni Moretti, draws extraordinary performances from his cast of premiere Italian actors. In an classroom scene Claudia's teacher is explaining the word 'palindrome' (a sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction) and shares with her pupils how some things are reversible while other things are irreversible. Grimaldi and his writers and actors demonstrate this term as it applies to human events in this thoughtful story. The film, in Italian with subtitles, appeals both to the intellect and to the emotions. It is a little treasure. Grady Harp, November 09

This film, based on a book, Quiet Chaos includes a main theme of grief, as a man and his brother, who ironically saves the life of two women at the beach and learns his own wife has died. There isn't this impending doom and grief for the wife, but how he deals with his life and his 10 year-old daughter. We do learn from his sister-in-law that there was not an abounding love for his wife. In retrospect, when he sees his wife has died, he doesn't even go to her body, not even go near her.

So, we wonder, what is he grieving? Is it guilt? Is it guilt that his daughter is motherless?

Most of the scenes are outside in the park as an executive Pietro waits and watches over his daughter as she attends school. He is a fixture at the park, getting to know the regulars, and he even conducts business in the park. His company is in the midst of a big merger.

Not much happens, except a steamy sex scene where he goes all out during this grieving stage. If there are young'uns in the room, send them elsewhere.

As, I said, nothing really happens here. It drug on too long and I couldn't decided where his grief is? And much more unanswered questions. One cannot grasp grieving, and how can we, when we know nothing of the wife. Where is the connection to grieving. We do know that he feels that by his not grieving was an indication that the daughter was not grieving also.

Again, this film drug on and on; nothing meaningful occurs; nothing to grab onto; no connection to grieving..... Skip it! Rizzo

Watching this film was a wonderful experience. I enjoyed everything about it, not the least that it's set in Italy and, of course, the characters speak Italian. Terrific acting. I particularly enjoyed the fact that the male leads don't look like "movie stars", just ordinary folks.