The Manual of Love
The Manual of Love
| 18 March 2005 (USA)
The Manual of Love Trailers

Four intertwined stories on the joys and sorrows of love.

Reviews
Karry Best movie of this year hands down!
Diagonaldi Very well executed
Gutsycurene Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.
Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
DegustateurDeChocolat A flaw that I feared before watching this movie was stereotypes about love, like men playing tricks on women to conquer them or betrayals with best friends. As a matter of fact the movie is divided into various parts, each one describing a stage of love: falling in love, crisis, betrayal and abandon. The different mini-stories are tied with each other by characters who are somehow related and the end of the movie connects with the beginning as an ideal circle. Despite the same old stories about relationships and developments of love stories, this movie has anyway some good aspects. For example, each actor plays his own repertoire, displaying their qualities in what they do best and for what they're known for. The best sketches, in my opinion,are made by Goffredo, played by Carlo Verdone, and Marco, played by Sergio Rubini, who offer the sense of humor shown in their own movies.
kz2131 I really enjoyed the first novel. Jasmine Trinca is absolutely sexy and smart there. Although, I would not find Tomasa a perfect match to her, he did played very well. I am surprised that this movie has not received much of attention of critics and media. I am big fan of Jasmine after this movie. She is the best! Next novels were not so interesting for me, although I did find amusing one scene about pregnancy and the way everybody watched mother delivering a baby in a hospital.I would recommend watching Manuale Di Amore to everyone.
Max_cinefilo89 Considering that Italian comedy is kind of limited to 2 or 3 movies during the Christmas holidays,and that some of them are quite good (the ones with Leonardo Pieraccioni and Aldo,Giovanni & Giacomo)and some aren't (the Boldi & De Sica-movies),Manuale d'Amore was a bit of a surprise: released in March 2005,with a quite unknown director(Giovanni Veronesi,better known as a screenwriter,who was also behind Che Ne Sarà di Noi),a famous cast although only two actors were professional comedians (Carlo Verdone and Luciana Littizzetto),and a 4 episode-plot,reminiscent of classic Italian comedies,as well as Verdone's early films.The story is simple but interesting,as it shows 4 different phases of love: 1.Tommaso (Silvio Muccino) falls desperately in love with Giulia (Jasmine Trinca)and spends the rest of the episode trying to get her; 2.Marco (Sergio Rubini) and Barbara (Margherita Buy) are a married couple in the middle of a crisis,and the whole situation is made funnier by the fact that the two actors were married in real life; 3.Ornella (Luciana Littizzetto) finds out that her husband is unfaithful and swears revenge; 4.Goffredo (Carlo Verdone)is suddenly left by his wife and tries to go on with his life,which won't be easy.Veronesi tells the story in a very classic way (there are even characters commenting the events straight to camera),without using too much bad language (typical of the mediocre Christmas comedies)or any scenes of graphic nudity.The cast is excellent: Muccino is one step closer to the stardom he deserves,Trinca,Buy and Rubini should do more comedies,while Littizzetto should do more movies. The real surprise,however,is Verdone,whose mature portrayal of an abandoned husband is miles away from his early,sketch-originated characters.His episode is a perfect mix of comedy and drama,and he deserved every bit of the David di Donatello he won for his performance(Best Actor in a Supporting Role).So,if you want to watch a good Italian comedy,Manuale d'Amore is recommended.
Michele Mazzoni The story is most banal and told us in stereotypical ways: falling in love, marriage, crises, betrayal. Giovanni Veronesi doesn't reach the goal of finding an interesting and original way of showing us something we've seen so much already in the history of the movies. The scene-structure is not clear for most part of the movie, and the feeling is that the actors are left mostly to their instincts, not doing a particular good and appealing job with them, therefore left undirected, and therefore badly directed, all of this on the basis of a very weak screenplay. We don't get hooked, we don't laugh, we just yawn and wait for it to be over so we can forget about this so called work of art (a very bad one!)
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