The Best of Youth, Part 1

I'm going to start this review off like pretty much every other review of this film: It's not really a film, but a six-hour Italian miniseries. And now, for two revelations: One, I've yet to start watching it (this first paragraph came to me before I started); and two, this review is going to be in two parts thanks to NetFlix shipping the discs one at a time, and due to the backwards nature of a blog, this means that in the archives, Part 2 will come before Part 1. Weird, but what can I do? Now, on to the movie.

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Most kids these days are impatient. They want what they want, and they want it now. How would they sit through something like "The Best Of Youth," which I just finished the first part of, without pausing for a drink, a snack, a bathroom break, or anything? Well, I managed. Sure, there were brief interruptions (when you live with your family, that happens when you watch DVDs), but not once did I pause the film. I never got bored with it, something that didn't happen with a slightly shorter film, "Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring." And if I had the second disc right now, I'd start watching it after only a brief intermission.

It is, as Roger Ebert pointed out in his review, an ambitious film. It's six hours long and it follows two brothers over four decades of their lives. You could easily think that such a film would be exhausting, maybe gloomy, or any other negative adjectives that come to mind. And yet this is one of the most moving films I've seen in quite a while (and keep in mind, I'm not even finished with it yet).

Matteo and Nicola start their journey away from home by planning to go to Norway for the summer with two of their friends, but they get sidetracked when Matteo discovers that a patient at an asylum he works for, Giorgia, is being electroshocked. So he breaks her out (a rare instance of cliche in the film, the old "the-patient-would-be-better-off-out-of-the-asylum" bit, but here there's actually a reason for it) on an ill-fated quest to take her home to her father. However, when she refuses to produce her nonexistent ID when asked by policemen, she is taken away and the brothers may never see her again.

That, on its own, could make for an interesting film, yes? Well, that's just in the first hour of "The Best of Youth." Matteo leaves for home and joins up with the army, while Nicola goes on to Norway alone... but to give away more would be wrong. There's so much story here that it's no wonder it had to be a six-hour miniseries: Compressing it into the form of a two or three-hour film would not only be fundamentally wrong, it's probably too difficult a task to contemplate. Oh, sure, you can summarize the events, but for their full impact, they need the time to develop.

And oh, what a time it is. This is a joyful work so far. It is almost like watching select moments from the lives and times of two real brothers instead of two fictional ones. The film has an eye for those moments in life where you chuckle at the little jokes life plays with you--not "on" you, realize, but with you. Sure, there are sad moments, but they're woven in just as they would be in life.

I may have to watch this part again before I send it back to NetFlix and get the second act, both to keep the events in mind and to experience them all over again. I almost wish I'd rented it at a traditional rental store, so as to get both discs and to absorb it all as a whole instead of as two parts. Alas, such is life.

As for recommending it, if you think you have the patience to sit through it, you probably should see this film. If you're the kind of person who enjoyed "Jules & Jim," I think you'll probably enjoy this.