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Two Friends
Directed by Spiro Scimone & Francesco Sframeli
Starring: Francesco Sframeli, Spiro Scimone, Teresa Saponangelo, Felice Andreasi
Script: Spiro Scimone, Francesco Sframeli
Original Title: Due amici
Running Time: 1:26
Country: Italy
Year: 2002
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The adaptation of a play, Two Friends evolves around the unlikely friendship between two roommates, Nunzio (Francesco Sframeli), a simpleton affected by a chronic cough and Pino (Spiro Scimone), a hitman working for the Sicilian mob.
The film follows Nunzio in his everyday life, from working at the factory then being fired to drinking coffee at the table with his roommate and trying to seduce a young and beautiful woman by bringing her various gifts. Of course this romance won't go anywhere and Pino will end up taking care of Nunzio's sexual education by bringing him to the red light district.
While we understand that the two writers/directors/actors, who usually work in a theater group, thought it was somewhat a good idea to use and transpose their real-life friendship onscreen, the film doesn't survive the cap of the adaptation, from the stage to the screen. The picture is uneventful, never transcending the mediocre life of its characters to create excitement in the audience.
Two Friends has been set as fable of friendship among outcasts, featuring a group of slightly dysfunctional characters, cute enough to make you laugh without being mocked. The film aims at working at the emotional level but the fact that both the "Rain Man"-style attics and the mafia subplot are so familiar plunges you into some kind of comatose state from which you only emerge when Nunzio's annoying cough sequences happen, giving you enough shivers to make you want to offer Pino his next job. The filmmakers push the envelop of pity and the result sweats with melodrama.
The picture is accompanied by the beautiful score by Andrea Morricone, which is obviously strongly influenced by his father Ennio, with a few references to the Godfather theme. A soundtrack at waste here since these melodies usually associated with powerful images in the audience's mind fall flat here, creating an unwelcome contrast between the beauty of the music and these non-dimensional characters.
Whether or not you think that there is something creepy about a sinister forty-something guy living with a simpleton, you certainly wouldn't wanna hang out with these Two Friends.
Fred Thom
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Two Friends
