‘Adagio’ Review: Stefano Sollima’s Muscular Roman Crime Drama Makes the Most of a Top Craft Team
variety.comCatherine Bray Night time in Rome. Wildfires rage on the horizon of the vast city. A blackout strikes, and block by block, the urban landscape is plunged suddenly into darkness, illuminated only by traffic and the roaring blaze in the distance.
When a city’s infrastructure fails, it feels like the visible, outward sign of dysfunction or rot. What better way to plunge the audience into “Adagio,” Stefano Sollima’s crime drama dealing with cynicism and corruption, and the repercussions of past actions, as they echo through the generations?
Premiering in Competition at Venice, this is a solidly assembled yarn about the on-the-ground consequences of a moral breakdown at the heart of the state, about fiddling the books while Rome burns.
The notional protagonist is 16-year old Manuel (newcomer Gianmarco Franchini), in over his head in a world he doesn’t understand.
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