A Summer in Genoa / Un été italien (Bilingual) - Very Good

Very Good - USED - Very Good: A well-maintained video game, CD, or DVD that has been played but remains in excellent condition. The disc is fully functional, plays without interruptions, and does not skip. The box or jewel case, along with the cover art, liner notes, and other inclusions, may show only minor signs of wear. Please note that any included digital codes (if applicable) are not guaranteed to work. USED BOOK: This book is in very good condition, showing only minimal signs of wear. The pages are clean with no markings, and the cover may have slight shelf wear. The spine remains uncreased, and the book appears well cared for. It is a solid copy that presents well and is enjoyable to read. Please note that any included access codes (if applicable) are not guaranteed to work.

An American family moves to Italy to start over in Michael Winterbottom's A Summer in Genoa. The film has hardly begun when Marianne (Hope Davis) dies in a car crash, leaving behind her academic husband, Joe (Colin Firth, very good), and their daughters, Kelly (The O.C.'s Willa Holland) and Mary (Dark Water's Perla Haney-Jardine). Five months later, British-born Joe exchanges modern Chicago for medieval Genoa, where Harvard classmate Barbara (Catherine Keener) shows the trio around the city. While Joe teaches, the girls take piano lessons, but other things remain much the same. Mary, who feels responsible for the accident, continues to receive visitations from her mother's ghost, and Kelly sneaks out to canoodle with a Vespa-riding Lothario. As the weeks pass, the sisters grow further apart, not least because Kelly also blames her younger sister. Winterbottom contrasts Kelly's romance with a possible relationship between Joe and Barbara, except he expresses greater interest in an attractive student with a more direct approach. Not counting the opening and closing scenes, however, both of which involve automobiles, the director concentrates on the rhythms of life for three people grieving in their own way, rather than using a series of incidents to build to a cathartic conclusion, making Summer one of his more subtle, if less eventful efforts. The extra feature offers behind-the-scenes footage and a 21-minute featurette, in which the filmmaker says he took inspiration from Nicolas Roeg's chilling Don't Look Now, in which a couple moves to Venice to mourn a loss. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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