Twice Born

source: Twice Born

Twice Born tells the story of interconnecting parallels stories upon one within the context of a story art. The film toggles between present-day scenes depicting the mother and son's complicated relationship and flashes of the tragic love affair between Gemma and Diego (Emile Hirsch) in the early 1990s that led to Pietro's conception. The boy's birth was the product of rather bizarre and secretive circumstances that places his biological kinship under suspicion, and the point of Gemma's trip is to reveal to him the truth about his filiation, but it turns out that she herself only knows half the story, if not less. We are then later to come in between. We then see Gemma and Diego's love is the sort that only seems possible in Europe. The beginning of their story has the gravitas of the destine-bound love at the center of Julio Medem's Lovers of the Artic Circle, but none of its focus, as Twice Born quickly turns out to be more interested in reveling in the secrets of its storyline than in its sentiments. Gemma and Diego grow apart as she discovers she can't have children and is scared that her sterility will make him chase other women. Although it does spark some chemistry and connections, the later scenes have a separate distance from one another, and it appears to feel more so all over the place. Twice Born does extend and could have been a little shorter, however there are an audience of these type of films.

A movie with a confusing time-line might not be everyones cup of tea. It should be clear early on (though the time-lines do not change every other minute, most of the time), if you are into the storytelling that is handed to you. It seems unfair, that this movie did not get as much notice as some others. But hopefully when you discover this for you, you can treasure it more. Speaking of treasuring things: the movie does have many nationalities and play in a war zone (at one time-line, which is the mid 90s) and has many languages it goes through. If you don't watch a dubbed version, I hope they imprinted subtitles on your version, otherwise you might have problems following the movie. It might be about 50% in English, the rest is quite a lot of European languages (including, Italian, some French and many others). The story is tricky, but still easy enough to follow. Great performances by everyone involved and no fear to look "ugly" (if Penelope Cruz can be accused of being able to look ugly that is).

Twice Born (2012) The original Italian title, "Venuto al mondo," translates as "Come to the World," and I think it's a better title. Because this is an intense, emotional journey of several characters each trying to find a reality, a world, that is livable. Set in and around wartime Sarajevo, the large cast of characters interweave in creative ways to make a powerful if clichéd story that has significance for how we see ourselves in the worst of crises. It isn't always an easy ride. The direction, by the Italian actor Sergio Castellito, is pushy, as if he knew the story was big and he made it bigger. Actors overplay some of their moments, editing is forced to pump up the adrenaline. And the plot is pushed to an extreme as well—love, , conception, war, rape, mistaken fatherhood, duplicity, and rebellion. It's all here, and if it's what makes this movie worth watching, the screenwriter, Castellito again, is trying too hard. Luckily the momentum of the events is compelling. And the setting, in the mountain laced capital of Bosnia and the dramatic coast, is interesting at every turn. The acting, too, is engaging even if overwrought. The leading man at first is an American who is a kind of idealist and optimist (and who is derisively called Jesus Christ at one point, which is about right, as his last scene will confirm). Played by Emile Hirsch with unbridled enthusiasm, we have to believe him. There is no other side to his character, and the endless earnest cheer is necessary in the rough surroundings. More dour is the woman, an expatriate Italian played by Penelope Cruz. That they hit it off is not unlikely, and the odd, intense nature of their relationship makes up the first half of the movie. We see the bohemian artist set of the city, we pay a visit to her father in Rome, they consider children in different ways. The strain grows, but the relationship doesn't crack. Until a combination of infertility and war intercede at the same time. Here the plot approaches the incredible, even though the ravages of war, and the famous rapes of that particular war (this is the 1990s), are well known. The human spirit persists in differing ways in the cast, which grows slightly, and the plot becomes both more fragmented and more fascinating. It all crashes and burns and yet there is beauty and resolution, too, by the end, and something satisfying in all the sacrifice and compromise. It's not helpful, I'm sure, to say this is the kind of material that might have made a classic masterpiece of a movie, but that's what sustains this one —the best of it is really terrific. It's hobbled mostly by the inexperience (or just the artistic limitations) of Castellito, who had such a huge role in the feel and scope of things the great cast wasn't enough to compensate. And to note, the novel this was based on was written by the director's wife, the son in the movie is played by his son (from what I can tell), and the director himself plays one of the secondary characters. Quite the family affair. See it? Yes, if this sounds at all compelling. It's in some large category of romanticized love-war epic with "The English Patient" or "Gone with the Wind" or the troubled "Atonement," but at a very different level of success.