Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

The White Space (2009)

Director: Francesca Comencini

3
Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Online

Straying perilously close to TV-movie territory, this latest from Italian veteran Comencini manages to inject what sounds like an MOR textbook weepie, about the emotional toil of premature birth, with a serious dose of integrity and pathos. This is chiefly down to a very affecting and discreet performance from Buy as self-assured middle aged teacher Maria who is unable to hold down a relationship. Her life takes a turn for the existentially harrowing as another fleeting lover waves her goodbye and she finds herself alone and carrying child. After a needlessly baggy preamble, the focus sharpens in the second half as Maria is forced to take stock of her life and her future as her daughter spends a crucial two months inside an incubator. A little soapy, for sure, but it won’t take much for you to succumb to the film’s life-affirming charms.

Author: David Jenkins 2009-10-20 18:12:17

Time Out Online London Film Festival 2009

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Francesca Comencini

Cast: Margherita Buy, Antonia Truppo, Gaetano Bruno

Genre(s): Drama

Duration: 98 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.