Marina

The path to fame is frequently paved with adversity, as no shortage of biopics like to stress. Tough childhoods, parental problems, romantic difficulties, the dilemma of balancing dreams and duties – all furnish the typical rags-to-riches narrative that drives many an account of the formative years of celebrities. Italian accordionist and singer Rocco Granata is the latest renowned figure whose upbringing plays out as prescribed, as rendered in Marina as both standard and sentimental. Of course, like all looks at the lives of the well-known, the tumultuous truth ensures emotions swell, even if in melodramatic and manipulative fashion. 

As a child (Cristiaan Campagna), idolatry marks Rocco’s relationship with his father Salvatore (Luigi Lo Cascio, Human Capital), the boy beguiled by his accordion-playing ways and “follow your passion” mindset. Indeed, Salvatore’s sojourn from to Belgium to toil in the mines is pitched to his family as a way to earn enough to later finance a comfortable life; however when Rocco, his mother Ida (Donatella Finocchiaro, To Rome with Love) and younger sister Wanda (Federica Marinò) follow a year later, the man they find is resigned to an existence of begrudging drudgery.

As a teenager (Matteo Simoni, TV’s Safety First), Rocco acclimatises to the working-class marginalisation and immigrant prejudice that comes with his surroundings, but refuses to tread in his hard-working father’s current footsteps. Instead, it is a life of music he pines for, despite being ushered toward more responsible choices. Defying Salvatore’s repeated decrees, he pursues his chosen career choice, a decision laden with trouble more often than not. Rocco’s devil-may-care attitude also extends to his frowned-upon fondness for the daughter (Evelien Bosmans, Amateurs) of the local Flemish shopkeeper (Warre Borgmans, Salamander).

From the adoring stars in Rocco’s eyes in the early Calabria-set scenes, to the enterprising determination that surges as he matures, to the conflict that comes when his own desires disappoint Salvatore, Campagna and Simoni hit all the requisite marks in bringing the charismatic real-life character to screen. Each of the young actors’ efforts – Simoni’s in particular, given the favourable weighting of screen time he receives – is instrumental in enlivening Marina’s average biographical stylings, their bright performances allowing personality to infiltrate what otherwise proves a routine affair.

It’s not that the story, as oft-seen as it is, isn’t affecting, nor that Rocco’s particular plight isn’t worthy of the big-screen treatment; it’s just that writer/director Stijn Coninx and his co-scribe Rik D’Hiet’s (Crazy About Ya) retelling is wholly uninspired. Where Coninx’s last period-set musical true tale, Sister Smile, demonstrated flair, Marina swaps the cultivation of moving moments for overt manoeuvring. A reaction is wrung out as all the usual plot points are struck – but with so much telegraphed triteness, nothing feels as earned or earnest as the movie thinks it is.

Here, every easy option is taken, whether shoehorning in admittedly sweet cameo for the now-septuagenarian Granata himself, cross-cutting the most dramatic developments for added emphasis, using every unimaginative camera angle, or casting the entire film in a golden, nostalgic glow. That Marina’s title stems from the song that would become Rocco’s first hit, ensuring this influential event forms the feature’s climax, actually emerges as one of the least cloying elements in an effort filled with positive intentions yet unable to exude the hope and heart of its subject in so openly adhering to feel-good formula.

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

Marina

Director: Stijn Coninx

Belgium / Italy, 2013, 118 mins

Italian Film Festival 2014

http://www.italianfilmfestival.com.au/

Melbourne: 17 September – 12 October

Sydney: 18 September – 12 October

Canberra: 23 September – 15 October

Perth: 24 September – 15 October

Brisbane: 1 – 22 October

Adelaide: 2 – 22 October

Byron Bay: 9 – 15 October

Hobart: 16 – 22 October