RAOUL BOVA AND ROSABELL LAURENTI SELLERS IN OUT OF THE BLUE

Standard rom-com turns slick Italian ladies man into dutiful dad

This insufferably good-natured and conventional Italian romantic comedy is very much an ensemble piece, which means that in the classic manner of comedies, pretty much everybody is hugging everybody else at the end. But its starting point is that standard Italian character, the preening, narcissistic ladies' man and unrepentant bachelor. Who in this case will warm our hearts by learning to be a loving dad. Meanwhile to entertain, or annoy, us, depending on your point of view, are: a girl's grandfather, an ex rock musician; the ladies' man's mother, who still, though he's forty-ish, regularly does his laundry; his father, who's not getting on so well with his mother; and his best friend-roommate, who has adopted the self-abnegating role of goofball because that of cool dude was already taken.

Out of the Blue is sometimes slapstick or in pretty bad taste, which is to say it's Hollywood-friendly; or, as the blurb says, a "warm crowd-pleaser."

The main actors are the handsome, hunky Raoul Bova as the self-centered seducer, Andrea; Paolo, his roommate, played by the writer-director Edoardo Leo (whose first film was NIC 2010's 18 Years Later); and the teenage girl, Layla, who arrives declaring she's Andrea's daughter. Layla is played by appealing young newcomer Rosabell Laurenti Sellers. She plays the daughter in another film in the current New Italian Cinema series, the relentlessly downbeat Balancing Act. She gets to relax and have fun here, but her dramatic skills are not shown to as much advantage. What's not predictable about this story? You've got me.

To begin with, Andrea has a life. He works hard developing the product placements in movies, and he has done well. And he's an apologist for product placements, in one amusing moment explaining to Layla how they're to be found just as much in auteur films like Kubrick's 2001 and Spielberg's E.T. On the edge of forty, Andrea isn't that young any more, but won't admit it. It's all about looks for Andrea, tinted hair, in-shape physique, sporty clothes, raft of trendy sneakers and designer shades to choose from, flashy black sports car -- driven with the top down, of course. Poor Paolo, who sleeps on Andrea's couch, wants to be a party organizer and clown. He like kids. But he exists largely as Andrea's sidekick, a role that's swallowed up the rest of his life.

Into this world the punkish but bright-eyed and pretty Layla arrives with her paternity news. Her mother has just died and she and her grandpa, the nutty ex-rock guitarist Enzo (Marco Giallini) are virtually homeless. Andrea isn't just saddled with a daughter: Enzo comes with the deal. At first Andrea pretends Layla's either scamming him or trying out for a movie role, but DNA testing proves otherwise. It was a summer indiscretion. Reluctantly, he starts paying attention to Layla. The truth is that though she's not without problems, she's pretty hard not to like. And she snaps his photo all the time, which flatters him. She's into photography, but she's also studying him. She genuinely wants to find out what he's like. "What you see is what I am," he says. Well, then the photos should work. But of course that's not the case. Deep inside are a heart of gold and parenting instincts waiting to be let out.

The object of the plot is to turn Andrea around, make him into a mensch, and get everybody on good terms, so they can hug and the movie can end on an up note. Partly the romance of the usual rom-com is replaced by the father-daughter rapprochement. Enzo turns out to be a rock sage. He sleepwalks and says weird things, but he worms his way into the lives of Andrea's mother and father (Tiziana Cruciani, Mattia Sbragia) and by pretending to have an affair with his mother, or something, brings the parents back together. But Andrea is not to be deprived of a conventional romance either. When Layla enters the local high school and is tapped to join the track relay team, Andrea immediately takes a shine to the coach, Lorenza (Nicole Grimaudo). Lorenza strenuously resists, through several reels. But wouldn't you know? Andrea does something dramatic in front of a bunch of people to show his intentions, and Lorenza finally melts.

I almost forgot: Layla gets a boyfriend.

Out of the Blue may "avoid easy sentimentality," as the blurb declares. But it manages to spew standard clichés right and left. Of course they go down easy in this context. We don't expect profundities. One message to be drawn perhaps is that everybody gets to come of age now, the nearly-forties; the nearly-seventies; and the kids, though they seem to need growing up less than their seniors on the screen. Maybe Andrea is what will have become now to the characters in Gabriele Muccino's 2001 film of guys reaching thirty and unwilling to grow up, The Last Kiss. Or at least what might have happened to that movie's serial seducer, Alberto (Marco Cocci). It's funny how The Last Kiss seemed so annoyingly conventional, but how true it seems now, and how skillfully made, with artistic ambition this film totally lacks. And any Carlo Verdone comedy is funnier than this. But Out of the Blue does its job and is full of good will. It's just a little bit too square; hasn't got enough of a real angle. Its big box office success in Italy may say more about the state of Italian cinema than any of the other films in the 2013 New Italian Cinema series under review, all of which are more ambitious and inventive than this, even if their success varies.

Buongiorno papà, 106 mins., written by Herbert Simone Paragnani, Massimiliano Bruno and Edoardo Leo, opened in Italy in March 2013 and opens in Hungary in December. Screened for this review as part of the San Francisco Film Society's New Italian Cinema series, playing Saturday, November 16, 2013 at Landmark's Clay Theatre.

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