Like Crazy

My favorite rock ‘n’ roll movie is titled Get Crazy. The two mental patients in this film have already gotten there and are “la dolce ding-dongs.” Beatrice Morandini Valdirana (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) is a boisterous, vivacious, name-dropping aristocratic with a knack for lying, who impersonates hospital staff and runs rampant through everyone else’s life. When she finds out that her new roomie is the withdrawn, tattooed Donatella (Micaela Ramazzotti) who has prior drug violations and a criminal record for nearly drowning her young son, she plans and executes their escape from the progressive Italian institution. Hoping to reconnect with her former mobster boyfriend, Renato, Beatrice drags Donatella through a whirlwind night of lavish meals (which they cannot pay for), stolen vehicles (which are abandoned once they run out of gas!) and close encounters with psychics, musicians and the family who’ve adopted Donatella’s son. Director Paolo Virzi turns this escape romp into a metaphor for the current Italian climate.

[NR]