If you asked me how this movie ended up on my watch list, I couldn’t tell you. I guess the poster and the fact it’s an Italian crime thriller prompted my younger self to add it. It was comfortably sitting on that list for a few weeks until I was in the mood for something different. I wanted to watch a good European crime thriller and, oh boy, did this one fit the bill. Adagio is a visually alluring and intense urban tale of crime oozing with mystery. After the opening scene, my jaw dropped and I knew I was in for quite a ride. The production values were phenomenally good and the cinematography featured those saturated colors I love so much.
I actually paused the movie because I wanted to see who could’ve made such a hidden gem. It was my old pal Stefano Solima, the guy who carried me through the pandemic with his gripping television shows. I’m talking about, of course, the masterpiece that is Gomorrah and quite solid ZeroZeroZero. You might remember him as the director of Sicario 2: Day of the Soldado. Adagio is the third movie in his unofficial Rome crime trilogy after ACAB and Suburra. I have to admit I did not watch those movies but I promise I will. What I did watch though is the movie we’re going to talk about now. It follows a 16-year-old Manuel who finds himself in a lot of trouble and has to turn to an aging criminal for help.
Things will only escalate from there. Adagio is one of those movies that offer a gripping experience of escapism. For almost two hours we will be transported into the criminal underbelly of Rome. This is far away from the luxurious mansions and lofty tourist places. We’re going straight into the areas where ordinary people live. Well, maybe not so ordinary people, and perhaps we will be visiting a decadent party or two. The entire story unfolds over the course of just 24 hours. And we will be spending most of it during the hot summer night. A sweaty and dazzling summer night further intensified by forest fires surrounding the city of Rome.
While Calabria, Sicily, and Sardinia bear the brunt of these uncontrollable events, in the past few years Rome has seen its fair share of them too. This constant fiery red glow you can see at the edges of the city combined with embers and constant power outages gives the movie a post-apocalyptic atmosphere. It’s like nature itself is trying to purge the wickedness out of the concrete monstrosity we call our home. And yet, this concrete monstrosity is our life. We’re bound to it whether we like it or not. It would be a cool and quite acceptable concrete monstrosity if the people were better.
As you can notice, masterpieces like this bring this ranting quality out of me. I think I’ve already talked about my definition of a magical night. I guess it stems from my teenage years when I would leave my stuffy and overcrowded apartment and step into the magical night air. It was hot but not too hot and just the right amount of humid. It bore with it a sense of endless possibilities, a live city that was waiting for me to take it. Tonight, anything could happen. I knew for a fact I was going to drink a few beers. If I’m lucky, and I was quite lucky often, I would smoke a couple of joints.
Everything that happened afterward was a bonus. That night is kind of reminiscent of the night from Dazed and Confused. But I digress. The characters we’re going to meet are authentic, and the lead is simply mesmerizing. Moreover, the main character, Manuel, masterfully played by young Gianmarco Franchini, seeks to break the genre stereotypes. One of the Italian legends, Toni Servillo, gives a haunting performance of a man between two worlds. However, Pierfrancesco Favino steals the show here as the veteran gang member Cammello. He looks and behaves like one of those guys you don’t want to fuck with.
And the same can be said about Adriano Giannini who plays the no-nonsense cop Vasco. Solima’s direction is flawless capturing the indifferent city buzzing with life as a backdrop to this slow-burning crime tale. I mean, I know I didn’t tell you much about the plot but just trust me on this one. After all, Adagio fully deserves the coveted Subversive Rabbit Rating 10, only reserved for the best of the best. I’ll even skirt the rules and add it to the Real Time Flow Movies. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention the pulsating Subsonica soundtrack that will further immerse you into the movie.
Finally, there’s one thing that Adagio does flawlessly, something other movies usually miss. It shows the lives of the characters outside the main events in the movie. Our tough cop Vasco has two kids and has to get one of them to a soccer tournament. He has to prepare them dinner while simultaneously working. Cammello sneaks into his wife’s room in the middle of the night and plops himself on the cold tiles underneath her bed. All of these things have nothing to do with the main story but they help immensely with not just immersion but, more importantly, character development and authenticity.
Director: Stefano Sollima
Writers: Stefano Bises, Stefano Sollima
Cast: Gianmarco Franchini, Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Adriano Giannini, Valerio Mastandrea
Fun Facts: Gianmarco Franchini, who plays Manuel, won the Best New Young Actor award at the Venice Film Festival.
Rating:
IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22001304/
