Eugenio

Released to some acclaim in Italy in 2002, this sentimental drama finally arrives on these shores to serve a season of Italian films at the Riverside Studios and does nothing to reverse the current negative view of Italian cinema. Eugenio (Giancarlo Giannini) is a middle-aged man with Down’s syndrome whose self-sufficiency amazes his friends and family. Not only does he cook for himself and keep a clean house, but he even volunteers at a local hospital! What a hero! And disabled too! Surprise, surprise: it’s Eugenio who has something to teach us all about life… Eugenio strikes up a friendship with a mute young woman, Laura (Chiara de Bonis), who is recovering from a serious car accident and who, thanks to various script convolutions, finally allows Eugenio to reconnect with a love from his childhood. Copious flashbacks and whimsical music drive along this soppy affair, and Giannini roots his performance in a demented Cheshire grin through which you expect him to mouth the words ‘Give me a gong’ (and, lo, the Italians did just that). For chronic melancholics and serial Kleenex-abusers only.