I'm not into modern-day Italian cinema as most of the films we made nowadays are pretty stupid (those are the kind of movies that sell here and therefore the market is saturated with them). Like Crazy (Italian: La pazza gioia) didn't seem like that kind of film and I was very interested in seeing it but unfortunately, it never screened in my city, and then I kinda forgot about it.
Beatrice (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is a patient of a mental institution who has a hard time socializing with the other patients. When a new resident, Donatella (Micaela Ramazzotti), arrives, Beatrice hit it off with her and they become friends. One day, when they are doing educational work outside the institution, the bus that is supposed to pick them up is late and they get away and embark on an adventure together.
At that point, since I haven't seen any other Paolo Virzì movie, I was afraid the film would take a Hollywood turn, and would only show the two women having fun. Fortunately, I was wrong as Like Crazy turned out to be a pretty realistic and emotional movie about many things, among which the friendship between Beatrice and Donatella stands out.
The friendship between the two women is indeed the core of the film, a very unlikely friendship between two very different people --Beatrice is a snob, talkative and self-absorbed woman who, in her distorted mind, believes she is a rich countess; Donatella is withdrawn, depressed and fragile and hides her introversion with a punk appearance. It's only together that Beatrice and Donatella will find some sort of balance. They will be able to help each other and give a meaning to their lives when nothing seems to make sense.
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While developing the relationship between Beatrice and Donatella and letting us know more about the two characters, Like Crazy deals with many serious themes and issues, and the way Virzì handles mental illness is remarkable. It's not easy to make a fun road movie with something as serious as mental illness, but he did it and with such sensibility.
At last, there's the cast. I highly doubt Like Crazy would be the same without Carla Bruni Tedeschi and Micaela Ramazzotti. I haven't seen anything with them before so I didn't know what to expect, but they blew me away. They are both brilliant and both deliver comedy and drama.
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