"A casa tutti bene" or "There's No Place Like Home" is a new Italian Italian-language movie from 2018 and this is the most recent work by writer and director Gabriele Muccino who seems to be back in Italy now after his journey to Hollywood, at leats temporarily. His work here runs for 110 minutes roughly and includes many actors and actresses that Italian film buffs will immediately recognize I'm sure, but non-Italians like myself will probably not recognize a single face, even if they are big film buffs, again like myself. This does not take away from any of the quality here I must say. I was well entertained here from start to finish. It does say "comedy" here on imdb, but honestly I found that this was in its entirety a drama with everything going on here: the Alzheimer's reference, relationships being completely destroyed, love being rekindled, new love rising, family connections breaking apart, severe financial struggles, pregnancy, (almost) incest and a lot more really. The 3 out of 5 is a rating that is maybe even a bit too low as there were 3 or 4 moments when this was a really great movie such as the younger ones getting close to each other and falling in love (well they did before already I guess) or the Alzheimer's moments that weren't too frequent, but were still touching and spot-on. Frequently, films that focus on so many characters and relationship end up with problems that some of them are just very forgettable or that it feels like quantity over quality with some story lines and characters being ignored to an extent where they could have been left out completely, but what we have here is they exact opposite really. It all fits together thanks to the connections all the people have with each other. Everything is linked really. I think this could be the first film I watched by Muccino, but it really did get me curious for more by him. The setting and idea of the ferry not going that night and everything resulting from it was a good one too I think. The conflicts between the family members and their +1s felt real and authentic all the time. And like I said there were even some moments that wowed me. The acting was fine too by everybody involved. Nobody really stood out that much, but it was a strong ensemble performance as some awards bodies also recognized accurately. Some of the actors had more bait to their roles, others less, but everybody did fine. My appreciation here goes mostly to Elena Cucci, but this probably is not too surprising being a straight male. She was just adorable, well I should say her role and the approach she gave her character. All in all, a pretty good film, close to a must-see at times and without a doubt one of Italy's best of 2018. Nice to see it getting to Germany so quickly. It deserves to be shown outside Italy for sure and if you get a chance to catch it on the big screen, then don't miss out. This was a success without a doubt, a pretty challenging project for sure, but it's nice to see Muccino, but also everybody else working on this one behind and in front of the camera succeeding here. Normally I am not as big on Italian films as on French for example, but for this one my verdict is clear: Go see it. Without a doubt, a thumbs-up from me and a positive recommendation.
