I saw this at a film festival where it was very well received by an English speaking audience. As one of the lead characters talks almost non-stop and very fast I suspect the overall audience impact might be higher on Italian speakers.
Certainly it is hard to keep up with the sub-titles at times. At the psychiatric care facility where the women live the daily cycle seems to be predictably noisy but largely routine until the two lead characters catch a bus away from their "work in the community" jobs at a nursery.
Their usual transport is late and by catching a regular bus to the local shopping centre a series of escapades start snowballing around them. The "Beatrice" character is off her meds and seems to be having a manic blowout that leads her from one precarious situation to the next.
The other character "Donatella" seems quite sober and somewhat surprised by their unauthorised leave of absence. As events unfold we learn more of both characters back story.
Some sequences seem to be too coincidental to be true but most of the time the snowball of events keeps moving towards some moments of truth for each of the characters.
Given that the film subject matter includes characters who are seen as crazy or mad by the system it is a real challenge to portray something of what that might be like from the centre of the storm - as it were.
Mostly though the juxtapositions work and we learn something about friendships and maybe a few insights along the way.
Certainly it is hard to keep up with the sub-titles at times. At the psychiatric care facility where the women live the daily cycle seems to be predictably noisy but largely routine until the two lead characters catch a bus away from their "work in the community" jobs at a nursery.
Their usual transport is late and by catching a regular bus to the local shopping centre a series of escapades start snowballing around them. The "Beatrice" character is off her meds and seems to be having a manic blowout that leads her from one precarious situation to the next.
The other character "Donatella" seems quite sober and somewhat surprised by their unauthorised leave of absence. As events unfold we learn more of both characters back story.
Some sequences seem to be too coincidental to be true but most of the time the snowball of events keeps moving towards some moments of truth for each of the characters.
Given that the film subject matter includes characters who are seen as crazy or mad by the system it is a real challenge to portray something of what that might be like from the centre of the storm - as it were.
Mostly though the juxtapositions work and we learn something about friendships and maybe a few insights along the way.