Review – The Interval
The Interval (L’Intervallo) follows young Mimmo (Salvatore Ruocco) as he is coerced into keeping an eye on fifteen-year-old Veronica (Francesca Riso) until her appointment with the local crime boss that night. The two adolescents bond as they explore the abandoned building where the meeting will occur.
While this film is quaint enough to be inoffensive, it ultimately never goes far enough to justify its existence. The two young leads are endearing enough that spending the day with them isn’t painful, but the film drags due to some rather cumbersome editing: at times it feels that the filmmakers had sixty minutes of material that they tried to stretch to ninety.
The impact of organised crime in the suburbs is very lightly touched on but never explored as much as the run down building, and it feels that we miss out on much of the drama of the situation. Instead we are treated to a series of distractions as the pair talk and get to know each other which, while reasonably pleasant, doesn’t advance the plot. The effect of the mysterious set up, why a young woman would come to the attention of a local crime boss, is mishandled by the film makers. The premise is probably too strong for the result which is essentially a lovely mood piece of two youths killing time.
It is evident that the film was made on a shoestring budget, which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but it shouldn’t feel like it so much. It was also a curious choice to have absolutely no soundtrack to the film and, while that too may be for financial reasons, it leaves the film with an intangible quality. There is a story in here, but every time you reach out for it it evaporates in your hands.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNifjW50n7U&w=400]
