The Salt of Life (2012)
Average Rating: 7/10
Reviews Counted: 45
Fresh: 37 | Rotten: 8
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 16
Fresh: 12 | Rotten: 4
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.2/5
User Ratings: 1,318
My Rating
Movie Info
In The Salt of Life, Gianni (Gianni Di Gregorio) plays a middle-aged retiree who has become invisible to all distaff Romans, regardless of age or relation. He contends with an aristocratic, spendthrift mother (Valeria de Franciscis); a wife who is more patronizing friend than romantic partner; a daughter (played by Di Gregorio's daughter Teresa) with a slacker boyfriend whom Gianni unwillingly befriends; and a wild young neighbor who sees him merely as her dog walker. Watching his "codger"
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Cast
-
Gianni Di Gregorio
Gianni -
Valeria De Franciscis
Mother -
Alfonso Santagata
Alfonso -
Elisabetta Piccolomini
Gianni's Wife -
Valeria Cavalli
Valeria -
Aylin Prandi
Alyn, Aylin -
Kristina Cepraga
Cristina -
Michelangelo Ciminale
Michelangelo -
Teresa DiGregorio
Teresa -
Lilia Silvi
Lilia -
Gabriella Sborgi
Gabriella -
Silvia Squizzato
Twin -
Laura Squizzato
Twin
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All Critics (45) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (37) | Rotten (8)
Italian writer/director/comedian Gianni Di Gregorio plays browbeaten family men brilliantly, and in this film he's given himself a fine showcase.
Top CriticAt times, the sad sights are enough to make a person hope the put-upon guy finds success. The problem is, as affable as Giovanni is, there's not much more to him.
Though you can empathize with Gianni's loneliness, the lecherous buffoon is too much of a stock type to feel fresh. At times, the comedy is shamelessly broad.
"The Salt of Life" finds gentle comedy in the dilemma of a still warm-blooded if sexually marginalized fellow for whom kindness is second nature and lecherousness is alien.
Imbued with gentle humor and a kind of bittersweet resignation, The Salt of Life isn't life-changing - it's life-describing.
A worthy low-key effort.
An extraordinary and universal Italian film about a 60-year-old man's mid-life crisis and the sapping of his spirit.
A sweet-natured, bittersweet little movie -- and I mean little -- about growing old.
By acknowledging that younger and older women might be wiser than he is, Di Gregorio takes what could have been a shallow excuse for self-pity and has managed to milk the setup for all the laughs it can generate.
Di Gregorio has a low-key, unaffected charm that makes it remarkably easy to relate to his semi-autobiographical movies.
"Mid-August Lunch" is a livelier film, but its fans should check this one out.
Episodically structured and lethargically paced, the new film attempts to convince us that there's something incredibly charming about an old guy who makes a habit of ogling young women. Actually, the whole scenario is pretty creepy.
Perhaps the sweetest movie ever made about a guy trying to cheat on his wife.
"Salt of Life" somehow takes what should be the leering thoughts of a dirty old man, and makes them poignant.
So hyperbolic are his fantasies that it's clear that not only will they never come true, but they never were true to begin with. Seems to me that's a better place to begin than end.
Di Gregorio continues traveling the Woody Allen trail in this charming trifle.
The Salt of Life deftly sprinkles wacky humor in with the melancholy, and Di Gregorio is a winning talent, both as the amusing star actor and as the film's co-writer and director.
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March 1, 2012:
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Foreign Titles
- Gianni und die Frauen (DE)
- The Salt of Life (Gianni e le donne) (UK)
I really liked the idea of this film: kindness can weigh on one, especially when one is surrounded by assholes. But in drama, or more broadly story-telling, audiences care about revolt, a character's reaction to fate's designs. Gianni's revolt, his attempt to find a mistress, is not a sympathetic goal, and though it leads to some funny scenes and seems natural, Gianni's objective doesn't get to the root of his problems. Without giving too much away, I will say that the last collection of shots of the film perhaps provide a worthy resolution to the film, but the ship sailed by the time the end could rescue it.
Overall, while the idea for The Salt of Life could be dramatically or comically compelling, the execution didn't work for me.