★★
A gravity-defying boy raised in seclusion matures into an extraordinary man and an international celebrity who longs for human connection.
Classification: 15
Much like its lead character, the fantastical grounding to The Man Without Gravity threatens to float away into nothing the longer it goes on. With a terrific first act depicting little Oscar's unique childhood in a small village, growing up with blankets nailed to the ceiling, vests weighted with rocks and watching Batman cartoons. Director Marco Bonfanti starts strong in establishing the magic and reality of his film, that despite the wonderous nature of Oscar's condition there are so many factors that present a danger to him. The character grows up in seclusion, losing access to his only childhood friend Agata, and having to be cautious around everyone he interacts with.
What's disappointing is that as the film goes on it begins to lose that magical quality as a now-adult Oscar decides to share his secret with the world. Bonfanti's intends to display how the commercialisation of the ability corrupts and robs Oscar's tale of its enchanting nature. Essentially becoming a product who is committee controlled and is given a new identity complete with fictional biographies and perversions to Oscar's true childhood. While it shows the repercussions for Oscar's upbringing, Bonfanti is unable to make these storylines feel compelling or unique to its character, going for the most obvious routes of anti-celebrity ideas. The Man Without Gravity wants to show how reality can degrade fantasy but this, unfortunately, makes the storytelling boring and the film never recovers from this.
There are lots of great ideas to Bonfanti's script but the execution of many leave something to be desired, especially the bulk of Adult Oscar's development. With the Netflix cash flowing though, Bonfanti's vision of the floating character is fully realised and sells the premise immediately. A baby Oscar up in the air of a hospital room still connected to his mother's umbilical cord is a wondrous standout. The special effects capability continues so that with every moment of Oscar defying gravity, the audience is spellbound by the most mundane use of the ability. The performances are very similar too while the predictability of the script has the audience lose interest, the main performances capture real humanity in the fantasy.
Both child and adult actors do well to capture the struggle of Oscar's abilities but the script doesn't deliver a main consistent emotional thread. Bonfanti builds two interesting relationships in the first act between Oscar and his mother and the struggle between them due to his condition and the between Oscar and Agatha. Jennifer Brokshi's performance as young Agatha being a delight but their connection to one another showing how their childlike innocence saw Oscar's ability as something magical than dangerous. The film sets up these two connections but then splits them between the next two acts and doesn't reach the heights of its origins. Not because of the adult scenes being too grim or dramatic but because it can't tie the drama and the fantasy together and still goes for the most obvious routes. Oscar's infatuation with Batman and superheroes becoming a tool for him to process his powers was a great subversion of current obsessions and is a connection he shares between his mother and Agata. But it feels that Bonfanti is casting too wide a net of ideas that he's losing what makes the film endearing.
There's a beautiful kernel of creativity to The Man Without Gravity that doesn't reach its full potential because of the lacklustre script. Bonfanti succeeds in several areas, exploring the ideas of innocence, love, magic and reality but can't make the whole thing work together in tandem. The magic is lost unintentionally and never captures the same brilliance of its first twenty minutes.
Director: #MarcoBonfanti
Cast: #ElioGermano, #MichelaCescon, #ElenaCotta, #SilviaDAmico, #VincentScarito, #PietroPescara, #JenniferBrokshi
Release Date: November 1st 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images from the Internet Movie Database, Synopsis from Netflix
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