THE SALT OF LIFE (Gianni Di Gregorio). 90 minutes. Subtitled. Opens Friday (April 6). For venues and times, see Movies. Rating: NNN
Italian writer Gianni Di Gregorio scored a big art house hit with his directorial debut, 2010’s Mid-August Lunch, and now he’s back with another bittersweet ode to growing older.
The Salt Of Life casts him as Gianni, an early retiree who walks his dog through his quiet Rome neighbourhood, runs errands for his wife (Elisabetta Piccolomini) and basically acts as a servant for his mother (the scratchy-voiced Valeria di Franciscis Bendoni), who lives in luxury yet doesn’t want to sell her home to help him out.
Gianni flirts with his downstairs neighbour and his mother’s live-in helper, but lately he’s begun to feel useless and invisible. Is he going to become one of the old geezers shooting the breeze outside the corner store? Or does he still have a shot at romance?
This is a very European midlife crisis movie (nobody blinks at the idea of his pondering an affair) with little plot and no real big laughs. It has the leisurely pace of one of Gianni’s walks, observing life as it goes by.
But the details are full of honesty and charm, and Di Gregorio has a wonderfully droll deadpan face that he uses to maximum effect, whether assessing the bags under his eyes in the mirror or smiling uncomfortably while his best friend tries to hook them up with blond twins half their age.
