The Hands Of God: Review

So over the weekend, I saw the hand of god by Paolo Sorrentino. 

Not every movie makes you move. Not every movie leaves you wrecked after the viewing, and not every movie makes you want to sit down and write a review in praise of it. This is one of the movies that make you do all that. 

This movie was a part of my Oscars nominated spree, and I jumped into it with no expectations. I knew that it was nominated in the foreign film category, but the title gave away nothing, and since I don't read the synopsis before watching the movies, I didn't know what I was going for. 

It comes from my heart when I tell you that this movie- sorry, film is something that I felt in my guts and my core. 

Plot:

The Hand of God is a coming-of-age movie, following the life of Fabietto Schisa, a teen in Naples, Italy during the summer of 1998. He and his family spent the summer together, until a tragedy struck, leaving him and his brother orphans. 

The films have many heartfelt family movements, but its main focus is the self-discovery journey of Fabietto in terms of identity, sexuality, life, passion, career, inspiration, and all the emotions that fall on the spectrum. 

The Family Dynamics.

The Hand of God shows a wide range of dynamics people have in the family. Starting from an abusive couple in Fabietto’s aunt and uncle. His parents represent an ideal couple who whistle at each other across the crowd and play pranks. But no relationship is without complexities, which is shown with the offscreen relationship between Fabietto’s father and his coworker, as they are a child out of wedlock. 

But not all relationships don't revolve around sound somatics. The relationship between the brothers, Fabietto and Marchino is uncomplicated, between Fabietto and his aunt, Patrizia is taboo, the one between him and their upstairs neighbor, Baronessa Focale is strictly revolving around an arrangement, and many other relationships that do not have words in the description. 

What's beautiful:

What's beautiful about this movie is not one thing. It's all things put together. 

Starting from cinematic styling. The energy of Italian cinema is resolution. The powerful dialogues, synced with just the correctly placed silence make all the shots alive.

It holds the attention of the audience, with its precisely planned long shots. In a scene with the whole family in the boat, staring at Patrizia in complete nude is stretched for exactly long enough to keep the attention, build the suspense without calling out to skip fast forward. 

What's also beautiful is the range of emotions you leave with. The movie will make you tear up from joy, prodigy, desperation, and then make you laugh in the next instance. It will edge with your emotions, leaving you vulnerable to take what it gives you with the sheer complexity of the range of emotions.

You will laugh with your belly, and then get punched with emotions so sharp your tears of laughter will be merged with actual tears of sorrow. 

in one of the most powerful sequences, just after the loving, jolly moment, Paolo Sorrentino gives the most, gut-wrenching scene with Teresa Saponangelo. 

Why watch it:

If so far I have not been able to convince you to watch this movie, then I only have one word for you: nostalgia. 

We are all teens once, and those are undoubtedly the best years of our life. The only doubt we have is regarding our future. Fabietto is going through the same experience. The lust and the feeling of being lost that come with that age, you only feel once. 

Fabietto is growing up in a very secure, sheltered family, with people to look after him, but after his parents are gone, he just deals with the emptiness and overwhelming feeling of need for self-discovery. Waiting to be a director, he wants to make films. About what? He doesn't know, but he feels passionate about it. 

And I bet you have felt the same. 

The movie is also great for film studying. You now only learn about how to write great scenes, you also discover a new way of storytelling worth this. Take notes of camera work, the sound, or lack of it, observe the beauty of a shot durations, and acknowledge the importance of dialogue delivery. This will teach you how to play with emotions as well. 

If you have never seen any work of Italian cinema, do give this work of contemporary art a try. 

Rating: 9.2/10

P.S: I usually add visuals, but without context, no image would make sense.

P.P.S: This movie is definitely worth the 2 hours.