Consequences of Love - 2004 film review

Consequences of Love is a much-lauded Italian film written and directed by Paola Sorrentino. It takes a while to get going, but the wait for action is worthwhile. This is an inriguing thriller with a poignant ending. The fact that, for most of the film, one really has no idea where it is heading is a good thing. Curiosity kept me watching, and the way the story develops did not disappoint.

Toni Servillo plays Titta, a man just coming up to his fiftieth birthday, who has spent the last eight years living a solitary life in a hotel in Lugano, Switzerland. There's something odd about him, and we soon learn that he's a heroin user. He injects himself, regular as clockwork, once a week. He owns a gun. And he plays cards with an elderly couple who have fallen on hard times, and who indulge in mild cheating. And he ignores the greetings of the pretty young woman, Sofia, who works in the hotel bar. What explains his strange ways?

Piece by piece, we're able to fit together the jigsaw of his life. He is married, but his wife and three children have virtually nothing to do with him. He has a gregarious younger brother, a surf instructor, who takes a shine to Sofia. But she prefers Titta, despite his habitual rudeness. It's all very odd, very low-key, but the story bursts into life when two thugs show up in Titta's room.

I won't say any more about the way the plot develops, but I will say that this is one of those films that I think would repay a second viewing. Knowing Titta's story, it would be interesting to watch how Sorrentino artfully drops hints about what is coming. An off-beat film, certainly, but well worth looking out for.