(BEFORE SUNRISE - with a hot Italian and a not-bad Texan…)
CAST: Alessandro Calzo, Adam Neal Smith, Charles Blaum, Ethel Lung.
DIRECTOR: Yen Tan
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one really moody sort-of romance - straight ahead…
Andrea, the hero of our latest review, CIAO, and Ryan, the hero of one of our recent reviews, CELLULAR (review # 430), have a lot in common: (1) they’re innocent bystanders (Andrea is a tourist, Ryan is a bum) who (2) both receive some distressing news via electronic technology (Andrea finds out via email that his internet boyfriend is dead, Ryan finds out via cellphone that some chick has been kidnapped and needs his help); and (3) they’re both hot Italians (Andrea is visiting from Genova, while Ryan is… well, I guess we’re not sure if he’s Italian or not, but the actor that plays him, Chris Evans, is half-Italian so that’s pretty much the same thing, right?).
Anyhow, Andrea (Alessandro Calzo) met Mark (Charles Blaum), a hot Texan, over the internet, and was planning to come all the way from Italy to finally meet him face-to-face in Dallas. Unfortunately, Mark got into a car accident just before Andrea’s trip. Yes, folks: death is the ultimate cock-blocker - and Andrea is left with some serious blue balls and plane ticket to nowhere. This makes Ryan’s dilemma a hell of a lot more bearable: even if he doesn’t save that kidnapped chick, he can still get laid, no-problem.
Enter Jeff (Adam Neale Smith), Mark’s best friend who is gay, too. Seems that Jeff has been taking care of Mark’s, um, “affairs” in the aftermath of the tragedy. While reviewing Mark’s emails to send responses that say “Sorry, but I died“, Jeff finds his correspondence with Andrea. Realizing that Andrea is from Italy and therefore is something of a boner-inducer, Jeff emails Andrea and urges him to come visit anyway. It doesn’t come as the biggest surprise that Andrea agrees.
And so Andrea arrives in Dallas and promptly discovers the following things: (1) Jeff is not-bad looking, and may have a had a thing for Mark; (2) Dallas has a lot of country music and “line-dancers” which, to an Italian, is probably the most horrifying thing ever; and (3) he has two days to try to get something out of his trans-Atlantic journey - that is, some nookie. And Jeff is in his line of fire.
But are things as simple as they seem? Should Andrea and Jeff consummate their attraction so soon after Mark’s death? Wouldn’t that be disrespectful? Or is their attraction more a friendly nature? Will the passionate Italian melt this reserved Texan? What happens when Jeff takes Andrea out line-dancing? Will all that country music freak the shit out of Andrea and make him hightail it back to Italy forever? Or will he give in to the Dark Side, put on a cowboy hat, and cowboy boots - and turn into The World’s Most Exotic And Hottest Honky Tonk? How should Jeff handle their “spark”?
Personally, I don’t know what the hold-up is here. Memo to Jeff: Andrea is Italian, dude… TAP. THAT. NOW.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: Reviewing films can be tricky. You have to balance three major things: (1) intent, (2) execution, and (3) result. Some films have flimsy intentions that are made solid by some accomplished execution, which can result in strong entertainment. Other films may have mediocre intentions and execution which predictably result in mediocre results. The true trifecta is if you have a film that has remarkable intentions and superb execution - because that often results in a classic film. Then there are films that have noble, ambitious intentions but also have limited budgets that hamper the execution, resulting in a film that is as interesting as it is flawed. Such a film is our latest review, CIAO.
Writer/director Yen Tan’s intentions are noble. CIAO is meant to be a chaste, platonic romance between two strangers who meet quite unexpectedly over the death of a mutual friend. Jeff has shared a lifetime with the dead Mark, while Andrea was about to. This is where CIAO’s strength lies: in the quiet mourning that both Jeff and Andrea go through. One mourns a love that was lost, the other mourns a love that might’ve been. While these two talk endlessly about Mark and many other things, their feelings for him - and each other - are left tantalizingly between the lines. As any good love story should.
There are moments of hypnotic power in CIAO, with Tan using long, unbroken takes and shots. Anyone with a short attention span would do well to avoid CIAO, since much of it unspools in an elegiac and attenuated way. This method allows us to almost share the characters’ sense of loss. The ultimate effect is one of lives in a state of flux - changed unexpectedly by an event that has yet to sink in.
Where CIAO stumbles somewhat is in certain areas of execution. For a film with a low-budget, this is a handsome production in some respects. The photography is both coolly distant and warmly present, and the musical score is spare and stark in a way that actually enhances the theme of emotional isolation. However, the budget constraints also force Tan to resort too often to “Talking Heads” shots. That is, a constant cutting back and forth between closeups of two characters as they talk. This results in an almost monotonous “tennis game effect” where we feel we are swinging our heads from side-to-side watching two people playing.
Fortunately, what the characters talk about is compelling enough to keep us from tuning out. Just think of how much more powerful CIAO could’ve been with a bigger budget that would’ve allowed Tan to take his characters out into more vibrant and unpredictable settings in urban Dallas? The reason similarly-themed films like BEFORE SUNRISE and LAST CHANCE HARVEY were so wonderful was not only because of what was going on between the leads, but also how their environment changed around them and affected them. In CIAO, the environment is static because of the low budget.
Alessandro Calzo (who co-wrote the script with Tan) perfectly embodies Andrea’s quintessentially Italian combo of warm approachability and cool serenity, and shows us signs of the hidden hurt within. His final shot at the airport is heartbreaking and hopeful at the same time. Adam Neale Smith is engaging in quieter way as the Texan who has erected multiple walls and defenses that are easily knocked down by the arrival of this dynamic Italian. Andrea and Jeff’s best scenes are the one where they finally meet each other halfway: (1) a wonderful sequence where they discover an old-style arcade game machine in Mark’s garage and engage in a heated video game battle; and (2) a silent segment where they stand at the back of a dance club watching dozens of people line-dance to country music - we just see Jeff and Andrea talking and laughing but can’t hear what they are saying, which makes the scene all the more intriguing.
Ethel Lung and Charles Baum round out the small cast as, respectively: (1) Lauren, Jeff’s inquisitive half-sister; and (2) Mark, the common man in both Jeff and Andrea’s lives whose death changes them. Blaum, in particular, manages the neat trick of permeating the movie with his character’s presence - even after his death very early on. We only a catch a fleeting glimpse of Mark in the beginning as he wordlessly gets into his car and drives off - on the morning of the accident. After that, we only see him in pictures and videos, and hear about him in conversations. But he haunts the entire movie like a phantom, further enhancing the film’s sad and mournful atmosphere.
In the end, CIAO is a film filled with admirable intentions, somewhat flawed execution, and overall interesting results. It is also very important to note that, in Italian, the word “Ciao” can be used both for “hello” and “goodbye”. This makes it perfect as the title of a film that is about sudden endings and new beginnings. All in all, an intriguing effort that might’ve been a classic with a higher budget.
