The Wait
The Wait
NR | 29 April 2016 (USA)
The Wait Trailers

In the vast rooms of a beautiful Sicilian villa, Anna receives an unexpected guest. Twenty-something Jeanne has arrived from France, declaring herself to be the girlfriend of Anna’s son, Giuseppe, who has invited her to the house to spend Easter together. But this is news to Anna, and Guiseppe is not yet there...

Reviews
Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away
SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie
TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.
Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.
MartinHafer "The Wait" ("L'Attesa") is a film that has really nice acting but the story itself didn't do much for me. Its vague ending left me cold and the behaviors of the leading lady, Anna (Juliet Binoche) just didn't make a lot of sense--regardless of what REALLY happened at the end.When the film begins, Jeanne (Lou de Laâge) arrives at a Sicilian villa and instead of being greeted, she's given a meal by a servant and then retires to bed without seeing the woman of the house, Anna. The next day, Jeanne comes downstairs and finds that there's been some sort of funeral...and Jeanne tells her it's because her brother died...though it's pretty obvious that this might NOT be the truth. Jeanne has come to see Anna's son and spend her vacation with him....but through the course of the film, the son never arrives and Jeanne is feeling abandoned...though Anna and her seem to have a few moments together bonding.Where does all this go? Well, as I mentioned above, the ending is a bit vague and it's easy to see two very different interpretations. I didn't really care about either one because Anna's actions simply didn't make much sense....and because of that the film lost me. Well acted, this film needed some better writing as the characters didn't always seem realistic or believable.
writers_reign There have to be easier things than penetrating this movie, like climbing Everest on skis, knitting steam, or convincing Jeremy Corbyn he's a dork. I COULD start by saying that Juliette Binoche is brilliant. There's no answer to that except so what else is new; Binoche is always brilliant. Brilliant is what she does. This is a film of silences. In fact there are more silences here than in the Collected Plays of Harold Pinter; Volumes 1 - 3. It's clearly aimed at the heart of the Academic- Pseud axis because you can speculate what the hell it's about till the cows come home and like all classics of the genre it poses more questions than it answers like where has the girlfriend of the missing son come from, how can she afford to stay indefinitely in the house with no visible means of support and, perhaps crucially, what actually happened the previous summer between her and the son. You could speculate on any or all of this or you could wallow in the sumptuous photography/scenery and Binoche's tour de force or, alternatively, you could play a game of chess in your head. Either way it's a hundred minutes you'll never see again.
Telmo Campos E Matos Without any planning, in the last few days I saw 2 films starring Lou de Laâge and although with completely different characters in both films (L'attesa and Respire) I was pleased with her capacity to enter the role . Juliette Binoche is as always one of the best actresses of her generation and always make great performances. About this L'attesa I can say that although in some parts the film goes a bit too long in the suspense, the story is well written and better represented by the cast. The image plans are very good but sometimes too still. But it is a must see film. A very good work from Francesco Di Giacomo However the story is never totality told to the audience, letting one always thinking ahead.
Veronika B I've seen it as a part of Italian Cinema Festival in Lisbon, the director was there. To the end I wondered how this relatively young man could make it - bring a spectator in the intersection of sorrow, enchantment and tension and keep him there the whole film. There was a lot of wondering in general - during and after, - a lot of associations and interpretations. The film keeps you very alive in spite of difficult theme, awaken, wanting something from the characters, wanting to be like the characters, asking questions, enjoying slow beautiful shots, colors, landscapes, soundtrack, actresses. Remembering other roles of Juliette Binoche as in "Three colors: Blue" and "Paris, je t'aime", other astonishingly beautiful Italian films like "Stealing beauty". Wishing it to resolute and stop and to continue after titles. J.S. Foer said "humorous is the only way to tell a sad story". "L 'attesa" with very convincing vitality states that the only way to tell a sad story is beautiful.