Amore, bugie e calcetto

Seven friends have one appointment a week they will not give up: their five a side match. Family, work, meetings and university classes all come second at that hour. The team has Piero, a student, Adam, a tattooist, Vittorio, who makes coffee machines and sponsors the side, Lele, a worker, Mina, the captain, a former professional and now a sports journalist, Filippo, who provokes everyone, and Venezia, who is always on the bench. They enter an amateur tournament whose winners will play a team of retired professionals. Luca Lucini directs. The cast includes Claudio Bisio, Filippo Nigro, Claudia Pandolfi, Giuseppe Battiston, Pietro Sermonti, Angela Finocchiaro and Andrea De Rosa. It is not a sports film but a film about relationships. The match scenes are short; the narrative takes place in the changing room, in the houses and at work. That Vittorio and his son Piero play in the same team is the bond at the centre. It was shot entirely in Trieste and runs about two hours. The shape belongs to the Italian ensemble film: many characters, parallel stories, all of them meeting in the same finale. The known problem of that shape is here too, with several of the seven existing on a single trait. Who it is for: viewers who like Italian ensemble comedy and films about middle aged crisis. Who it is not for: it runs long, the strands are unequal, and most of the female characters stand attached to the men's stories.