MovieChat Forums > La ragazza del lago (2007) Discussion > Loved this film

Loved this film

posted 12 years ago by angelosdaughter
1 reply | jump to latest

I just watched it and.....
I loved this film:
*The slow, leisurely pace, listening to the Italian language and trying not to watch the subtitles
*The Inspector with his weary compassion and understanding of the potential suspects he interviewed, particularly the grieving father of Anna who loved his daughter so much he took endless pictures and videos of her. His own contentious and loving paternal relationship with his daughter so familiar to the parents of a teenager.
*The ending which was so sweet and had nothing to do with the solution to the crime. It reminded me a bit of the father in "La Vita e' Bella" who also tried to shield his child from the unpleasant reality.
*Anna, the murder victim, a girl with compassion and goodness who, had she lived to adulthood, would perhaps have made a wonderful therapist for disabled children. The viewer feels the loss of never having gotten to know her.
*The parallels between the feelings toward their children of the parents of Angelo and the old, embittered father of Mario.
This film was so much more than a murder mystery.

The setting in the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region of Northeastern Italy where my father was born, made for some beautiful scenery. Although I have been to Italy, I have never been there.

[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

"Minor spoilers!"

I agree with you that it is an interesting film, though I can't say I "loved" it. The locations especially in the first half of the movie are just magnificent and are probably one of the best reasons to see it. It is sort of an atypical "mystery" in that there is almost a complete lack of suspense in the film which is probably a clue towards the final outcome, though red herrings are flung around with gay abandon by the director from the outset. I think the ending could have been made stronger for the audience by allowing us to know what the perpetrator was actually going to be charged with. That person is arrested, but the inspector had earlier said, "I know you didn't commit murder." There's definitely some crime involved but its rather vague as to what exactly it is. Perhaps the original Norwegian novel was more explicit in its conclusion.