SWEET DREAMS (Fai bei sogni)
MAST D: Marco Bellocchio. Italy. 134 min. Sep 12, 3:45, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 Sep 14, 8 pm, Scotiabank 2 Sep 17, 9:15 pm, Scotiabank 8. Rating: NN
Bellocchio returns to the theme of Italians and their mothers in this sensitively told but unsatisfying melodrama based on a bestselling autobiographical novel about a journalist unable to come to grips with the sudden loss of his mother when he was nine.
The beautifully burnished childhood scenes set up a loving, symbiotic relationship between the two, but after she dies he enters adulthood with too much emotional baggage. Valerio Mastrandrea’s performance rarely rises above the weight of his character’s blocked feelings.
By the time a sympathetic doctor (the luminous Bérénice Bejo) changes his life, the film has become tiresome.
