(PG)***
Bad Seed!
Good parents provide for their children. Even bad ones. See a family on edge cope with an unexpected occurrence in A Chiara. Just what does the title mean? Who cares. What matters is this slick drama shows just how far some families will go to provide sustenance – even when worlds ( and heads ) collide. Do seek out this heavyweight drama only at the VIFF Film Centre Theater in Vancouver before this hidden treasure winds up on video on demand, streaming services and DVD
Italy is known for lots of things. Sexy Fiats, delicious pizzas, luscious lovelies Sofia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, decadent director Fellini, Feragammo and Prada and – wait for it – The Mafia. Enter the mixed up world of a quaint father, a homely wife a baby girl and two uppity teens just itching for adulthood.
Organized crime rules by fear and secrecy. So when the family patriarch runs afoul of the law as the girls are left to fend for themselves. Ah, the shame the shame these pliable impressionable girls experience as they try to hide from the truth and look the other way. So the younger girl tries to piece the family mystery leading us on a not so wild goose chase where the tentacles of evil come from circle.
Made in Italian with English subtitles A Chiara takes us deep inside the lions den as a dad masterfully covers his tracks with a prying daughter out to discover the truth. Intense at times the atmosphere In this drama is intense and unpredictable . This a good movie has been made largely due to uncompromising performances that came from out of nowhere. With some stars definitely in the making.
