Chiara Martegiani, Alessandro Sperduti in I'm Glad You're Here

So glad you're glad she's glad

In Luis Prieto's sophomore outing as a director, I'm Glad You're Here, with a screenplay by Federica Pontremoli based on a novel by Maria Daniela Raineri, a high school girl's parents get killed in a plane crash and in her grief she decides bonding with her dad's mistress will be a good idea. This is a women's-only oddball-buddy picture, set in the Eternal City, with some not-too-deep looks into generational issues and that whole thing about growing up.

The pathway is a laptop: Allegra finds her way into her father's emails -- turns out the password was her own name -- and before long she's communing with her dad through his amorous extramarital correspondence.

We have already met this girlfriend, whose name is Luisa, and learned that she was adoring. Allegra discovers Luisa's address and waits for her one day outside her gate. (The daughter-mistress meet-cute involves a tiny car and a peeing kitten.) One thing leads quickly to another, and Luisa takes Allegra in as a paying boarder -- she's an orphan, after all; and her presence brings Luisa closer to the man she loved.

If this sounds sudden, it is. Transitions are abrupt here and point of view, if there is one, varies. It's a little surprising to find this movie included in the "New Italian Cinema" series of an American film society (and not just one). It's tone is uneven, and it's put together like random episodes of a TV sit-com. There's no sense of a story arc to make the 106 minutes feel nicely structured. The pop music is too obtrusive and too loud, the crises and resolutions too pat. The presence of this film on a festival roster is another sign that despite some great directors, all is not well with the Italian cinema.

But all is not totally lost. Spanish-born Prieto and his cast and crew are out to give us a good time. Everyone on screen (except the few who are objects of satire, like an egocentric author) is both good looking and charming. Allegra (Chiara Martegiani) is severe-looking but real and adorable. Her boyfriend Gabriele (Alessandro Sperduti) is a cutie whose smile is irresistible. Luisa (Claudia Gerini) is klutzy at times, but beautiful and sweet. Her new boyfriend Giovanni (Guido Caprino) is laid-back and handsome. (He turns out to be unreliable, but that's men for you.) Watching these people, whose problems are as skin-deep as their looks are attractive, is good for the blood pressure. And that's the way with Italian films sometimes. They don't make you think but they make you feel good. A bonus is the wonderful, if here underused, Stefania Sandrelli, as Allegra's grandmother (who's only 60, so some young mothering went on here).

When Gabriele and Allegra make it for the first time, appropriately just after her 18th birthday, this gratuitous, boilerplate moment is an Italian Hallmark card of the first time getting laid. Gabriele is utterly sweet and non-threatening. (Remember this was written by a woman from a woman's novel.) Nonetheless he's the least stereotypical of the movie's males. Things get more complicated after that, of course, but in this atmosphere of Nora Ephron charm and Kodak moments it's a little hard to take the rough stuff very seriously.

I'm Glad You're Here/Meno male che ci sei, 106 min, in Italian, was released theatrically in Italy in late November 2009. Seen and reviewed as part of the San Francisco Film Society's New Italian Cinema series presented Tuesday, November 16, 8:45 pm & Saturday, November 20, 3:45 pm at Landmark's Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco.

_________________
©Chris Knipp. Blog: http://chrisknipp.blogspot.com/.