Agata and the Storm 2004

     In Genoa, Agata runs her bookstore and without meaning to she causes light bulbs and appliances to burn out.  At the same time that a younger man declares his attraction to her, her brother Gustav a morose architect, a distant husband and an indifferent father, discovers that he was adopted and has a half-brother in the Po Valley.  Causing Agata's great pain, she sees her young man with another woman plus Gustav cuts himself off from her and from his wife and son.  Agata goes to the Po Valley, meets Gustav's brother and the brother's wife and tries to reconnect by letting life wash over her.  Wisdom comes from traditional Chinese medicine and from good literature.

      This Italian movie is a quirky film about the life changing events that happen between two families.  A man finds out he has a different mother than the mother he has known all his life!!  This revelation causes him to make a big turn around in his life.  In order to get to know his new relatives he must also deal with the relatives he thought were his relatives.  This new event leads to one big family that is far from normal?  Agata is his sister and she is a single woman running a book store.  She has a much younger man say he's in love with her.  This is a BIG problem because this man is married.  Also Agata has an unusual problem with light bulbs?  When she is close to a light bulb it blows out??  This film is a rather novel approach to a comedy with many characters.  There is a lot of fun for  viewers.  2 1/2* (some viewers really like this movie but others feel it is just so so)

125 min, comedy directed by Silvio Soldini with Licia Maglietta, Giuseppe Battiston, Emilio Solfrizzi, Mariana Massironi,Claudio Santamaria, Giselda Volodi, Monica Nappo, Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, Carla Astolfi, Elena Nicastro, Remo Remotti, Andrea Gussoni, Mauro Marino, Silvana Bosi, Carlo Luca De Ruggieri.

Note:  Imbd 6.5* out of 10* with 1174 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 68% with 500+ audience scores, Fandango 68% audience score, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 30 ratings, Letterboxd 3.2* out of 5* with 3.2*.