The Hand of God

The best Sorrentino in years, probably since The Consequences of Love. Finally shaking off the chubby Roman pathos of The Great Beauty and the masturbatory excesses of Youth, he serves up his unmistakable Napoleonic diet poetic style. The fewer great words that are spoken, the greater things that God's hand touches. The more modest the images here, the more moving they are. The first half is a crackling family comedy with many memorable moments, whilst the second half is a much heavier drama about the impossibility of accepting the loss of loved ones and film as a refuge where we find shreds of lost happiness. Life is sometimes like a cruise to a party island, but where everyone has already gone to sleep... The Maradona of European cinema scores a good one. (2022.01.04)