La solitudine dei numeri primi (2010) Reviews

• A poor movie adapted from a great book

  sweenetto2012-05-01

  Do yourselves a favor: don't watch the movie and read the book instead. I read the book a couple of years ago, which I liked a lot. I was curious to see the movie rendition, even though I had a bad feeling: the IMDb score was kind of a red flag. I have quite a few problems with the movie: 1) It changed several aspects of the book, some of which are fundamental. Above all, the ending. In the movie conveys a very different (and more crowd pleasing) message, which contradicts the essence of the title. 2) It does not propose a linear development of the story, making up a bunch of flashbacks and previews, which I found very confusing. Figuring out what happened to the main characters, and their families, will prove even more challenging for a person that hasn't read the book. 3) It does not develop some major themes, such as Alice's mother passing away, or the intense, deep and unique bond that the two outcasts (Mattia and Alice) share is just touched upon, to name a few. 4) The soundtrack is simply terrible. Apparently, it was taken from another movie, possibly to pay tribute to (emulate?) Tarantino. It's way too much "in your face". It does not complement the movie, being too invasive and too "loud". 5) The horror interpretation might be original and bold. However, sometimes by being bold things can go horribly wrong. Which I think was the case here. With the horror approach, one can be partially insulated from the tragedies and the emotional nightmares that the main characters face and go through. Maybe this was a way to decrease the high expectations that were surrounding this production, as the book was a best-seller in Italy. The culprit of this failed attempt must be the director, as most actors do a fine job. Alba Rohrwacher delivers (as usual) a great performance. And I did like the mean Viola played by Aurora Ruffino. Filippo Timi, instead, overdoes it in a small cameo. I really hope my memory will be able to erase the scenes that I've just seen (a-la "spotless mind"...), restoring what my imagination came up with while reading the excellent book.

• A sensitive and beautiful movie

  sarah_piasentin2014-01-20

  Mattia Balossino is a boy who lost his mentally problematic twin sister Michela in a park. Alice Della Rocca is a girl who suffered a ski accident. These two kids are shown in five moments of their lives, from the childhood to the adult life, always carrying the strain of their choices over the years. Mattia and Alice knew each other at school in their teens, and for some unknown reason developed a relation based on strangeness: the strange boy that doesn't talk too much and the strange limping girl; the strange bulimic girl and the strange boy who cuts himself. The story of the movie is not linear. It passes from 1984 until 2009, during different moments of the protagonist's lives. There are gaps that the movie doesn't make clear, and by reading the book you'll have the same difficulty to discover some things. The Solitude of Prime Numbers is an open and never-ending story. It could be about me, you, and anyone. Why the "Prime Numbers"? Because a prime number is only divisible by itself and by 1. These numbers are faded to be alone, forever, like Mattia and Alice. Besides, Paolo Giordano, the author of the book, is a particle physicist with a PhD at the University of Turin, Italy. The great book story was adapted to the big screen by its own author, Paolo Giordano. Some say that the book was better and there are points of the story that changed... all those things that people say when they like the book better than the movie. Don't let them confuse you: The Solitude of Prime Numbers is a good movie in what it intends to be. The soundtrack is as disturbing as his creator, Mike Patton, the leader of Faith No More. Alba Rohrwacher is an amazing actress and won a fair prize for her role of adult Alice. Young Mattia is also well played by Vittorio Lomartire.

• Great Movie, faithful to the book as much as it was possible for it to be.

  ocramavaf2011-05-05

  I watched this movie having waited for it almost since i heard a movie was going to be made about the book, and usually, personally at least, whenever i watch a movie based on a book i find it rather disappointing, however this is one of the few times i must say the contrary. The setting is perfect, the distorted reality of being so far yet so close that is beautifully narrated in the book is spot on in the movie, and both characters are played beautifully by the leads, they captured every feeling, every expression and every look that the book conveys and put it on screen, however i must say that if one is to truly enjoy this movie one should read the book before as it is not very fast paced a movie and the frequent time jumps in movie will confuse a person, but for the ones who have read the book it will make perfect sense, and as a final word the ending is, in my opinion, (even thought it differs from the book) is how the book should have ended.

• Fractured lives

  nmegahey2018-02-17

  To put it unkindly, The Solitude of Prime Numbers is like a feature version of The Undatables. It's based around a boy and a girl who are drawn together through their common status of socially awkward outsiders, but who are so messed up that their encounters are painful and the chances of them actually ever getting together seem very slim. Mattea is super-intelligent but moody, withdrawn and uncommunicative with his parents and friends. As a young boy he was close to his mentally disabled sister Michela and looked after her, calming her during her 'episodes' As a young man, Michela is no longer there, and there is clearly an experience in their childhood to be revealed that that has marked Mattea and left their mark on him in the form of self-harming. Alice also has visible scars. She walks with a limp and is bullied by the other girls, who call her a gimp. One of the girls, Viola, becomes her friend however and encourages her to pursue her attraction to the sullen Mattea by inviting him to a party. Her family life however has also been troubled, with a pushy father and an unstable mother. Neither Mattea nor Alice fit in with the world around them and suffer at the hands and from the taunts of others, but it's nothing to the suffering and the pain that they inflict upon themselves over incidents in their childhood. In terms of storyline it's as straightforward as that, but the structure of the film split into different time zones for both Mattea and Alice does complicate matters. Or not so much complicate as attempt to create a non-linear impression of a fractured mindset. It's a fractured past however that nonetheless shares echoes and correspondences between them, between past and present, between two people each trapped in their own worlds and in their pasts. There are moments when you feel that some kind of escape or redemption might be within their grasp, where they might make a connection that could help them to face up to the past and escape from what the might become, but the traps of the mind keep preventing them from getting past the past. There are moments of melodrama and intensity, but good performances from Alba Rohrwacher and Luca Marinelli give a human face to the weight of torment that some people have to endure all their lives.

• In which we can, perhaps, recognize part of our solitary selves as we progress in life.

  RJBurke19422016-05-01

  The title of this movie was my prime stimulus to watch it: not only to deconstruct the meaning but also because a movie about math - apparently - might provide a unique filmic experience, I thought. Well ... I'm correct about the first, but not the second. Happily for viewers, it's not all about math. But the story is about a young man who is, at an early age, recognized as a math genius. We follow him, Mattia (Luca Marinelli) and his childhood companion, Alice (Alba Rohrwacher), as they both grow up, through their teen years and on to adulthood. Both are introverted to the point of almost total withdrawal; both indulge in aberrant behaviors; both experience intense personal and psychic pain early in life which heightens their isolation; but, also, both recognize each other for what they are - primal individuals unable to communicate according to society's dictates. For the next twenty plus years, they each try to establish a lasting relationship with each other. During the course of that time, they briefly meet, in person, perhaps on five or six occasions; at the end of the story, Alice sends a short, urgent letter, to which Mattia responds in person. At all other times, we see their lives unfold individually as they each grapple with the many obnoxious (or helpful) people who intrude upon their solitary existences. Some viewers might find the plot too slow; indeed, a few sets and scenes do include long static shots, particularly facial close-ups. What's more annoying, though, is the elliptical structure of the story as it cuts between three different time periods; which I'm sure will tend to confuse some or even many viewers. Having read the novel - brilliant writing which worked exceedingly well as a linear narrative - I'm still puzzled why the director decided upon disjointed flashbacks. Visually, it doesn't work well at all; frankly, it lessens the dramatic tension, especially when compared with the novel. My overarching criticism, however, concerns the ending, the resolution to Mattia's and Alice's solitary anguish. In the novel, it ends realistically and appropriately, I thought. This movie's end is, unfortunately, hopelessly Hollywood. The production is competent, although I think the music is too loud at times. The cast and acting are fine. In view of my above comments, though, my recommendation is: read the novel, forget the movie. Give it 5 out of 10, barely. May 2nd, 2016