The greatest 01 hour: and 59 minutes with dramatic roles and dramatic characters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only beauties like Penélope Cruz can turn men on like this, but her character also paid the heavy price for being too charming.

Just some good moments and soundtrack and that's all!

Intriguing melodrama at most. Solid performance of Penélope Cruz saving the movie from disaster.

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.

A succesful doctor recalls the love story he had with a hapless woman whom he raped and then grew a genuine affection for on the day he hears of her daughter's involvement in a car accident. Actor turned director Castellitto uses a style too eccentric and overwhelming for the cold storyline, but the film is held up by the great performances, particularly the one by Cruz as the misfit Italia.

shocking extreme for "effect of others life", "wild love" and it really hang your mind. I want to see it again.

Castellitto gira un film di grande rigore con un ultradamaticissimo intreccio alla Almodovar degli ultimi tempi e una bravissima Penelope Cruz imbruttita.

Un dramma fra passato e presente, con dei grandi attori che con poco riescono a farti vedere tanto. Sergio Castellitto riesce senpre a tirare fuori il meglio in questi personaggi un po' strani, mentre Penelope Cruz e' incredibile nel sembrare tutto quello che non e': brutta, sgraziata e indesiderabile. La storia e' pesante, cosi come l'atmosfera, e puo'non piacere, ma la qualita' no, quella c'e' ed e' indubbia!

I think this is one of the best performance by Penà (C)lope Cruz, and I think her character was ment to be kinda hatted rather than loved.

Amazing film, beautifully acted, and often heart wrenching. Fantastic piece of work.

Muy buena actuacion de Penelope.

little character exploration and weak ending but overall a heartwrenching exploration of the twisted human dilemma of love, cowardice and mid life crisis. the turbulence of the plot keeps haunting

Sergio Castellito co-wrote, directed and stared in this 2004 romantic drama about a respectable surgeon Timoteo (Castellito), whose operation is interrupted by the news of his daughter Angela's motorcycle accident. She is brought to his hospital where an operation is to take place, while the desperate father waits in front of the operation room. There, he has time to think, and the film further evolves by showing scenes from his sinful past. In the flashback, we can see Timoteo's dissatisfaction with his marriage even before Angela was born, but, more importantly, the accent is on his relationship with Italia (Penelope Cruz), which began by him rapping her. For a long time he has kept a double life, in love with Italia, but too much of a coward to confess that to his wife. Time for a final decision must come some day, and we suspect it can't end well. This was Castellito's biggest international success, and I can see why some would like it. Its heart is in the right place, and it has one great performance by Penelope Cruz. However, the flaws in it can't be reduced by its nobility. My main objection is that I couldn't believe, as the story suggested, that Italia was the greatest love of Timoteo's life. Sure, they are connected by the troubled past, but the relation on the screen was not as further developed as Castellito wished. It seemed to me, as harsh as it may sound, that he showed a relation based on lust, trying then to sell it as great love. The photography is quite beautiful in some parts, but the director had constant problems with the tone of the picture. He lost every chance to establish it with the overuse of slow motion in the first half, which probably looked like an easy way out of the creative problem. Penelope Cruz is, undoubtedly, a star of the film. On a deeper level, her Lucia doesn't believe in a happy conclusion of this romance. She lives in fear which soon turns into an obsession, and Cruz managed to show this with the necessary subtlety. As for Castellito's performance, I'm not so sure of its constancy. I kept changing my mind about his interpretation during and after the film, maybe because I've seen much better actors doing these types of roles (Daniel Day-Lewis in The Age of Innocence comes to my mind). My final impression is that Castellito wasn't able to surpass the picture's utter predictability. That doesn't have to be a flaw in these kinds of films, if a director is brave and skillful enough not to lead it through every single one of the usual steps. Castellito obviously didn't have the guts, and that's why the desired cathartic ending falls flat.

Disturbing & unrealistic drama!

¿Poor people stay poor people? and then die.....Status Quo saved once more by The Rulers of moral hypocrisy

The cast was perfect for this movie. There are lots of drama and that`s why is like Oscar movie.

Overly melodramatic, and ultimately dull. Had potential but settles for style over substance.

cruz and actor/director castellitto sweat and smolder the plot resembles the marilyn monroe movie where her neighbor sends the family to the beach 2 avoid the summer heat wave.

Penelope Cruz at her best ! ! ! ! ! !