La chimera (2023, Alice Rohrwacher) (Patreon)

48/100

Not keen on this recent trend in which filmmakers name a key character—sometimes the protagonist, sometimes not—after the country she represents, just to make sure that nobody can possibly miss the metaphor. Dumont sorta got away with it, if only because what he's trying to say about France the nation via Seydoux's mercurial France de Meurs isn't entirely clear (though that's a problem in itself). Here, on the other hand, we have an Englishman, plundering Italy's archaeological treasures for profit, who suddenly develops pangs of conscience after a woman named Italia, for whom he's fallen, is so horrified by his actions that she calls the cops on him. To be fair, it's not quite as simple as that, since plenty of Italians are likewise robbing Etruscan graves; Rohrwacher also shrouds certain narrative elements in obscurity, to the point where I remain unsure about whether we're meant to understand what befell someone seen only in flashbacks, and don't know quite how to interpret an ending that deliberately defies chronology and logic (but is poetically effective, so maybe that's enough). Still, the bluntness rankles, and since I never really developed an interest in Arthur—Josh O'Connor seems to me a singularly bland presence, forever upstaged by his rumpled linen suit—or in the ostensible mystery of Beniamina or in the secretive ancient-art black market (details of which feel dangerously like nonsense from The Da Vinci Code), those misgivings got magnified. Excepting The Wonders, I haven't connected with Rohrwacher's earthy + supernatural sensibility; in this case, the latter involves dowsing (for tombs?!? water's dumb enough) that's clearly supposed to be legit, a bit of disbelief that's particularly hard for me to suspend. Also, what's the deal with the couple of brief instances in which characters directly address the camera? That has no apparent purpose, quickly gets abandoned, and goes unmentioned in most reviews I've read. Always nice to see Isabella Rossellini, and Carol Duarte gives good spunk (ew), but that's about it for me.