My Brother Is an Only Child (2007)

The film follows two Italian brothers growing up in the 1960s and 70s. They both love the same girl but have very different political beliefs; Accio is a fascist, Manrico is a communist. Predictably the main themes are politics, romance and family. We see the brothers battling over their ideologies, relationships and their parents' attempts to guide them through their emergence into adulthood.A very interesting story idea but it goes nowhere. It lacks depth, insights and fails to be believable. The film tells the story in a contrived, clichéd, predictable way and is ultimately cynical in the roles the characters are given and how they are expected to carry them out.

Our little film here is a coming of age tale of one young man's developing maturity from youth as a deluded fascist to a more left-ish political slant. The film title refers to an old Italian song, and in the context of the film refers to his older brother who is a strong willed communist activist (although there is a sister also who like the family as a whole is quite left-ish).The film is really a feel good movie and it's humour all the way. The brothers may bicker but there is love between them despite any conflicts. Add in a mild love triangle with the elder brother's lady, and you have a real hodge podge reflecting the complications of youth for our lead man.As much as you'll enjoy the film for its humour, there is still something missing. The story with its material could have said so much more. There are lots of good characters but you never feel it builds up to enough. The film never seems to challenge any of the views on screen. Feels like an opportunity lost somehow.Beautifully filmed with great acting, you will enjoy the film. Great acting from the ensemble adds to the experience, but I just wish that we'd been given more in the story that was served up. However I still enjoyed it.

The political backdrop of this 60s character drama is both nostalgic and frightening - that disaffected and rebellious Accio finds himself so easily taken in by a Fascist mentor strikes parallels with the our own young men turning to extremism or street violence in a search of identity. Accio clashes dramatically with his older brother, the hip, good-looking communist, but the story not so much about political ideals as their expression of familial jealousies and personal moral development.The tensions and affections of this struggling working class family, portrayed by all with genuine emotion. The dialogue is witty and charming and not unlike other memorable Italian films (Il Postino, Cinema Paradiso) the characters come across almost too resoundingly. This gives the film a well-crafted theatrical quality, that is engaging, well-paced and very satisfying.

Simply put, a very good movie. As somebody who lived through part of those years, I really appreciated the way it managed to recreate their social and political 'atmosphere'. Yes, it is not the first flick to deal with those topics, but hey, how many movies about WW2 have we seen so far? Was Flags of our Fathers less good for this reason? I particularly liked Accio's description of personal relationships between the brothers, as well as the intriguing political evolution. I thinks that Scamarcio's presence could also take a younger audience to this movie, something which would be very good as some stories are just worth remembering (I can't stand the "let's forget about it and move on towards modernity" approach; awfully dangerous for a civilized society). Back to the cinema factor, all actors fit well in their roles, although the Accio's sister was kind of lame at times. Zingaretti's performance as a hardcore fascist, on the other hand, was made even more intriguing by his close association with the ever-different character of Commissario Montalbano in the popular TV transpositions of Camilleri's novels (which by the way I strongly recommend to anyone interested in Italian written fiction).