A couple of days ago I watched NON TI MUOVERE on its opening night.

Well, I think that it's a true masterpiece ... gripping, heartfelt, as kudos-deserving as the best-selling novel of the same title upon which it's based, written by Margaret Mazzantini (here she is the co-screenwriter and also appears in a glimpse-like wordless cameo, at the end of the movie),winner of the Strega - one of Italy's main literary prizes - in the year 2002.

The director and male lead Sergio Castellitto - who plays the cowardly ambiguous surgeon Timoteo - is as immense as always. He's also the other co-screenwriter of the movie. He's - above all - author Margaret Mazzantini's husband of many years. His was clearly a true labor of love.

Penélope Cruz is astounding, realistic and yet heartbreaking, enormously moving, totally disappearing into her character, who's a poor, destitute, cheaply dressed and unkempt woman named Italia. She cleans hotel rooms for a living and lives herself in a slum, but has got the purest and noblest of souls ("She's a toad in a miniskirt who teaches the Prince how to love", in actor-director Castellitto's own words).

Comedy actress Claudia Gerini - in her first highly dramatic role as the guy's betrayed wife - is very, very good herself.

Last but not least, the Castellitto-Cruz chemistry is amazingly powerful: much more so, say, than the Cruise-Cruz one in Vanilla Sky, enough said ...!

I cried my eyes out, even though I had read the novel more than once, therefore perfectly knowing the story!

HERE is a movie which I definitely want to watch multiple times.

As for myself, well, after two days I'm still re-living all the marvelous, emotionally intense moments which I enjoyed while watching this movie.

Really nothing in Penélope Cruz's resume will prepare you to what she does here, not even what I think was her best performance before this movie, i.e. Sister Rosa in Pedro Almodovar's ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER ... nothing indeed! Not to mention that she acts here in Italian language, and she commands it perfectly.

Just to get an idea of her greatness in this movie, here are actor-director Sergio Castellitto's words at the press conference for the movie, which took place in Rome on March 9th:

"Penélope is heartbreaking, she's as great as [Federico Fellini's wife] Giulietta Masina [in the movie La Strada], what she did for this movie is amazing: a lesson of humbleness, passion and courage. But beware! Her act of courage is NOT the fact that she became ugly, this is a silly thing which you use to read everywhere, but it's wrong; to become ugly for a movie, for an actress like her, who then comes back to her natural beauty, is actually a privilege. Her act of courage, instead, was how she succeeded in building her character's misery: she got on this horse and she did ride on it, without any radar equipment, with a total faith, asking just for one thing: 'I want to act with my own voice, at any cost'. And since I'm an actor myself, I just take a bow in front of a person who tells me: 'nobody will touch my own voice'. Anyway, did you hear her? Did you hear how good she is? She gave a true diction lesson to so many, many Italian actresses ".

And what about Sergio Castellitto himself? This extremely charming and intelligent man has been an acting God for more than twenty years here in Italy; he's an uncanny mix of subdued and brainy acting, total sincerity, powerful emotions in display, instant ability to deeply inhabit any character ... and despite his 50 years of age (he's 20 years older than Penélope),they are absolutely MORE than believable as a mismatched couple of lovers who're overwhelmed and bewildered by a passion which they can't explain, not even to themselves. Like I said above, they share a burning-hot chemistry, which is not only a sexual one but a sentimental one as well.

Moreover, I honestly think that I had never seen in ages such a faithful literary screen adaptation: the novel blends into the movie and vice versa. The one takes new life and new breath from the other.

The opening sequence in the rain, shot from a great height (I'd say that's the same technique of the opening scene in Vanilla Sky),is stunning ... and from there on, the movie flows easily, always vividly and painfully alive, with no lazy moment, at no slow pace, even though it mainly relies upon a subtle psychological analysis of the characters, with those glances, those conversations, those all-important small gestures, those confrontations, those deep feelings in display ...

I hope that this movie will be adequately distributed in the U.S. also. All those involved in it truly deserve to get a wide recognition for their excellent work.

Just saw this film at a local Italian Film Festival and it easily was the best film of the fest, and one of the best movies I've seen all year. For adults only, but worth the watch when and IF it ever comes to the USA (wake-up acquisitions people!!!)

Italian actor Sergio Castellito ("Mostly Martha") proves to be a more than capable director with only his second film "Don't Move." Although the film opens in the present with a motorbike accident in the rain, it quickly heads 15 years back in time in order to develop the main storyline of an adulterous young doctor who makes an odd acquaintance in the countryside. What follows is a highly interesting and complicated storyline that will enthrall adult audiences for the film's entire two hour running time. Castellito also stars in the film as 'Dr.'Timo', a surgeon with no moral compass who, while waiting for his car to be fixed, gets drunk and 'date' rapes a strange woman who up to this point has only acted as a good Samaritan on the doctor's behalf. This oddball beginning is only part of the atypical but highly involving elements that make this film so intriguing and may send some viewers to the bookstores to seek out the Margaret Mazzantini novel on which it is based until the theatrical release hits U.S. shores. As the two main characters continue their trysts, their relationship evolves from chronic, somewhat violent sexual assaults to full-blown lovemaking. Being poorly educated and of limited means, the woman, 'Italia', grows in affection for the doctor as his treatment of her begins to shift from victim to paid whore to lover to true love. Giving her most amazing acting performance to date is Spanish-born Penelope Cruz ("Vanilla Sky"),who not only shows a facility for the Italian language but also the capability of creating a believable portrayal of a basically, very unattractive woman. Italia has blackened teeth, overdoes her make-up, and dresses like a peasant (she's employed as a seasonal worker at a local hotel),but her firm legs are enough of an attraction to keep bringing the horny Dr. Timo back for more for years to come. The only false note in this scenario is the appearance of Timo's wife, the absolutely, gorgeous Claudia Gerini ("I'm Crazy About Iris Blond"),as the doctor's severely neglected wife.

Luckily, this pseudo 'madonna-whore' aspect to the the storyline is the only glitch in an almost perfect scenario. Although many Italian movies deal with the theme of adultery, this film portrays the growing passion between the lovers in extremely dramatic terms while continuously defying clichéd situations. Clever surprises as well as the parallel storyline in the present are used in a way that will stun viewers anticipating something more derivative. Certainly the most original Italian film-making that I've seen since the work of director Federico Fellini in the 50's and 60's, and kudo's to Castellito for both starring in and directing this marvelous drama which will hopefully get a USA theatrical release soon.

Emotionally intense movie handled unflinchingly by lead actor Castellitto. This immersive character study into an unfulfilled doctor's love affair is a tad too lengthy and perhaps the director indulges in his on screen action a little too much, but the dedication that the two ill-fated lovers give to portraying the rawness of their emotions and instincts will, despite once in a while misfiring, leave few viewers unfazed. Penelope Cruz is great as the counterpoint, and deserves much respect for assuming such a demanding, unglamorous role at this point in her well established career. Obviously it is the love of acting that propels her(no comparison to her English jobs),as this mildly received Italian film must have been several notches down from her draw, but when you see the psychologically harrowing sex scenes (not always for the sex, but for the right before and right after) you realize why someone would be interested in such intimate work. As the film slightly overextends itself to reach it's climax which sort of dumbs down it's poignant theme, the performances and overall taste left are nonetheless real and life affirming despite all of it's muddied ramifications.