Vermiglio (2024)

Just as too many cooks can ruin the stew, too many story threads can ruin a movie, and that’s very much the case with writer-director Maura Delpero’s fourth feature film. This Golden Globe nominee for Best International Film follows the lives of a family in a village in the Italian Alps in 1944. The family patriarch and town schoolteacher, Cesare (Tommaso Regno), along with his wife and army of eight children shelter a pair of Italian army deserters, hiding them from Axis Forces in search of the runaways. While in seclusion, one of the soldiers, Pietro (Giuseppe Di Domenico), falls in love with Cesare’s eldest daughter, Lucia (Martina Scrinzi), eventually marrying her and fathering a child. However, when the war ends and Pietro travels to Sicily to visit his family, all hell breaks loose, revealing a deep dark secret and creating havoc for his pregnant wife and her family. Had the film stuck to this storyline, “Vermiglio” might have been an engaging watch. But that, unfortunately, is not the case. The picture incorporates an array of other plot lines, seriously diluting the narrative and making for a very unfocused, incoherent watch (particularly in the first hour). Most of these extraneous story arcs remain largely underdeveloped, and much of what could have been done with the principal narrative thrust remains largely unexplored. To make matters worse, the picture’s glacial pacing at the outset tries viewer patience to the point where checking one’s watch becomes a regular activity. Only when the script settles on its primary tangent does the film begin to become remotely watchable, but, by that point (nearly an hour in), it’s too late to salvage the viability of the production, especially since viewer interest in any of these characters has long since evaporated. It’s a shame that the filmmakers chose to employ this approach in telling this story, because, if it had been judiciously pared down to the basics that work best, this could have been a beautiful, compelling release. Instead, we’re left with a mishmash of ideas, themes and narrative elements that leaves audiences clamoring for an end that’s far too long in coming.