Il Divo -- Should Have Been Half-Hour Long

The first 30 minutes of "Il Divo" are masterful. Writer/director Paolo Sorrentino satirizes modern Italian society and politics in a brilliant way. His visual sense is extraordinary, reminiscent of Federico Fellini, who is clearly one of Sorrentino's idols.

Even how Sorrentino's characters walk is hilarious. Every detail, from costume to hair to make-up to the breathtaking camera work, is packed with satire. The comedy is far darker than Fellini's ever was. Sorrentino provides a cold, hard look at the repulsive violence and corruption that appears to infect the very core of Italian public life. You get the feeling that Sorrentino has to laugh to keep himself from going insane.

You could think of "Il Divo" as a companion piece to "Gomorrah," the only other Italian film that has commanded the world stage in the past year. Both expose a deep sickness in contemporary Italian life. Given the brutal nature of the films, it's heartening that they have been embraced in Italy. Evidently Italians today have grown sick and tired of the madness. Let's pray that this generation of Italians makes some social changes.

The weakness in "Il Divo" is that the film only has about 30 minutes of insight to offer. The last 80 minutes regurgitate the same message. It becomes unbearable. Sorrentino has a gift for direction and cinematography, but he does not appear to be a talented screenwriter. Once the basic satirical view is presented, the film has nowhere to go. There is not enough of a story. It's a train with no locomotive. In the second half, I felt like I was watching a dog chase its tail. Lots of energy, but no one going anywhere.

The story, what there is of one, focuses on Giulio Andreotti, who was a leading figure in Italian politics from the 1950s to the 1990s, serving several terms as prime minister. He was in power in 1978 when one of his political rivals, Aldo Moro, was kidnapped and eventually murdered by a radical leftist group. The film takes place long after the Moro killing and presents Andreotti as haunted by the tragedy. Andreotti had refused to negotiate with Moro's kidnappers, who were demanding the release of several imprisoned radicals. This refusal to negotiate led to Moro's death. There was much speculation that Andreotti secretly wanted to get rid of Moro.

"Il Divo" focuses most of its attention on a sensational trial in the 1990s, where Andreotti was accused of having connections to the Mafia. But the film is nothing like a documentary. It does not purport to know any facts. Instead it provides an impressionistic take on the circus-like quality of Italian politics. "Il Divo" does not so much indict a man; it indicts a society.