Review of The Great Beauty (2013) by Nick O — 22 Dec 2013

It's impossible to shake the hulking shadow of "La Dolce Vita" in making a movie about a writer waxing nostalgic through the haunted streets of Rome. "The Great Beauty" doesn't try.

Like Fellini's magnum opus, Paolo Sorrentino's vibrant ode to The Eternal City is as voyeuristic and searching as it is a wholly definitive vision, equal parts question and answer. Yeah it's full of contradictions.

So's life. "The Great Beauty" never stays on one thing too long; one character, one party, one emotive mood. That's why even clocking in at two hours and twenty minutes it remains a magnificently entertaining and rewarding watch, and doesn't feel like a cinematic ploy, an inherent obstacle to overcome.

Or maybe it is. No matter. Point is, "The Great Beauty" doesn't miss a beat. You'd have to strain hard to not be impressed by it. It's the most landmark portrait of modern Italy since "Gomorrah".

Fellini would be proud. (84/100).