Featured Audience Ratings

• Emil K

  
  A Film with strong echoes of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. Both of these films share the theme of family moving to a Italy for a new start after a loss of one of their family members. They both also uses the architechture and locations to create a mood of suspensene unease,… More
  A Film with strong echoes of Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now. Both of these films share the theme of family moving to a Italy for a new start after a loss of one of their family members. They both also uses the architechture and locations to create a mood of suspensene unease, but where Nicolas Roeg succeeded with his 70's cult-calssic, Michael Winterbottom fails quite badly. Genova is a film that just do not know where to go or what to be. Sense of dread is there, but it feels like it is only there for leading us for a wrong tracks. This is not a thriller, it is more of a story about family in the state of a emergency and Winterbottom do not allow us even to get close to these characters. End result feels just cold and distant.

• Shawn E

  
  After the traumatic loss of their mother, the family of three move to Italy to escape their depression. The film is full of emotion as the family tries to cope with their new lives in Italy and sometimes a lot of tension is brought out. The straightforward story is decent and and the… More
  After the traumatic loss of their mother, the family of three move to Italy to escape their depression. The film is full of emotion as the family tries to cope with their new lives in Italy and sometimes a lot of tension is brought out. The straightforward story is decent and and the quality of performances are quite good. Despite the simplicity of the plot and story, the film still sustains substance and the value of moving on in life.

• Panta O

  
  Michael Winterbottom in Genova showed us all his skills, except one... knowing how to end the movie! He is a director of such integrity that leaves me puzzled how could he finish a movie like that after giving us details such as awkwardness of hugging somebody at a wake while holding… More
  Michael Winterbottom in Genova showed us all his skills, except one... knowing how to end the movie! He is a director of such integrity that leaves me puzzled how could he finish a movie like that after giving us details such as awkwardness of hugging somebody at a wake while holding a plate of food, the momentary sigh of frustration a parent gives when woken by a crying child before they leap out of bed to provide comfort and a little kiss of a teacher and student where everything seems wrong... At least Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine) and Kelly (Willa Holland) looked natural and they were the perfect casting choice. Maybe Winterbottom is one of the greatest living directors but Genova is unfinished business! At the end the life goes on but dissaponted crowd in the theatre is a good sign that something is wrong!

• Cinema F

  
  If you want action, complex plot and driving narrative with plenty of twists and turns, then maybe, you have to forget this film. <br/> <br/>Co-written by director Winterbottom, the facts of this story are fairly straightforward. Widower Joe (Firth), an English academic… More
  If you want action, complex plot and driving narrative with plenty of twists and turns, then maybe, you have to forget this film. <br/> <br/>Co-written by director Winterbottom, the facts of this story are fairly straightforward. Widower Joe (Firth), an English academic living in America, loses his wife, Marrianne (Davis), in a car accident. After months of bereavement he sees a chance for some renewal in a teaching contract in Genova, Italy, and takes his daughters Kelly (Holland) and Mary (Haney-Jardine) with him. Here he is shown the ropes by Barbara (Keener), an old university friend who is sweet to him, though he only has eyes for Rosa (Romeo), a student. <br/> <br/>In Genova, daughter Kelly rebels and stays out late partying while younger sister Mary deals with her grief wandering the streets, with sadness and constant nightmares about her mother's death. Joe tries to keep what's left of his family together as he rediscovers life and love again in an exotic setting-- Genova, a northern Italian port city that is steeped in history and stunningly beautiful. <br/> <br/>With its architectural splendours, the city is itself a wonderful setting. And the performances are solid and nuanced. Colin Firth is an adept actor, if somewhat understated, and both Haney-Jardine and Holland also give performances as his daughters. <br/> <br/>The film resonates with emotional truth and is compelling despite the apparent lack of action. This may lead some to ask: so what's it all about? Life, I guess, as simple as that.