Living It Up

Lightly likeable study of a marriage in decline, set against a backdrop of widespread unemployment and a shift from socialism to free market get-up-and-go. Bigagli's steelworker gets laid off, suffers poor health, and sees his hitherto faithful wife (the somewhat stunning Ferilli) have an affair with a smarmy local TV celeb. What's interesting is that she's viewed at least as sympathetically as the film's nominal hero; indeed, it's unfathomable why such a lively, intelligent, resourceful woman would be attracted to a lazy, depressive, self-pitying ugly mug like Bigagli in the first place. A minor but promising first feature.