You Can't Save Yourself Alone

A separated couple meet in a restaurant to discuss where the children will spend the summer. Delia and Gaetano sit across from each other, and as the evening goes on the conversation slides off the holiday and onto how the marriage ended. The film never leaves that table. Scenes from the past cut in, but the weight stays on those two chairs. Sergio Castellitto adapted the novel written by his wife, Margaret Mazzantini. He refuses to reduce the collapse to one cause: Delia's history of anorexia, Gaetano's shame about his own family and his inability to become the writer he wanted to be all operate at once. Jasmine Trinca and Riccardo Scamarcio lead, and their scenes together carry the entire film. Its flaw is that the flashbacks stop explaining and start repeating, and two people talking without pause eventually produces the feeling of a stage play. Who it is for: viewers who like dense Italian drama about a relationship coming apart. Who it is not for: anyone looking for something light.