Genova

R

2008

1 hr. 34 min.

Drama

List

78%

45 Reviews

Tomatometer

41%

1,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Joe is a widowed teacher bereft at the death of his wife Marianne in an accident caused by their youngest daughter Mary. Offered a teaching job in Italy, he takes Mary and her older sibling Kelly to Genova. Initially loving the new lifestyle, Joe soon finds himself torn between memories of Marianne and the possibility of a new romance while the guilt-wracked Mary finds dangerous solace with role models who resemble her mother.

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Critics Consensus

Michael Winterbottom's tale of grief and mourning, though frustrating in places, is intelligent filmmaking with superb central performances.

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Audience Member

Following the death of his wife in a car accident, the college professor Joe (Colin Firth) decides to teach English Literature at a university in Genova, Italy. He is accompanied by his two daughters, 16-year-old Kelly (Willa Holland) and 10-year-old Mary (Perla Haney-Jardine). The trio occupies a flat in the crowded Genova streets and soon adapt to the local way of life, taking day trips to the beach and hiring an Italian tutor in musical composition. Kelly falls in love with local Italian teenage boy and begins dating him, surreptitiously without her father's knowledge. Mary remains close to her father and still deals with painful memories of her mother's death. Mary was directly responsible for the accident and remains haunted by her image. Joe, while enjoying life in Genova, has to deal with the demands of being a single parent while also balancing his re-emergent love life... Genoa was generally well received. Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus reads: "Michael Winterbottom's tale of grief and mourning, though frustrating in places, is intelligent filmmaking with superb central performances." Michael Winterbottom's tale of grief and mourning, though frustrating in places as Rotten Tomatoes states, has great acting, but a choppy narrative that has this "something bad is going to happen" looming all over the film from start till end. Which becomes annoying in the end. The film has also been nicely shot in Genova. The biggest plus is the radiant Willa Holland as Kelly. "Genova" is solid, but doesn´t really stick in the end.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

isla s

This is a fairly bland and slow moving film. The performances are decent and there is a nice depiction of the childrens love for their recently lost mother but it didn't really strike me as a fascinating film - more a sad and somewhat long drawn out one. I would say that Colin Firth gives a good performance and there is some nice cinematography of Italy present but it isn't the easiest or nicest film to watch, in terms of living the childrens loss, tragedy and despair following their loss of their mother. Its not a bad film but its not great either, so I'd say if your a fan of Colin Firth or the story interests you, then yes its worth watching but generally speaking, I wouldn't necessarily recommend going out of your way to see it. It felt a little dis-jointed somehow - its nearly quite poignant but not quite there and also there's some fairly shaky camerawork present which made it appear visually somewhat disorientating, in a frustrating way.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Art B

A beautiful, if choppy, set of vignettes that bring out the grit and beauty of venerable Genoa. Alas the naturalistic photography of a beautiful place is about all this cliched and plotless driftwood of a movie has going for it. These characters don't develop and they don't confront the tragedy they have been through. Frustrating because it does nothing but drift instead of taking the potential opportunity the 1st scene setup of the mother's accidental death provides to delve deeper into the shared sorrow within the surviving family.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

07/28/22

Full Review

Audience Member

One of those immersive films that make you forget you're watching a film. The unbelievably sad premise doesn't weigh down everything down.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

The first part of this movie is horrible, so the one star reviews are deserved in that respect. And I wouldn't blame viewers for not continuing to watch after that because I came close. The movie begins with what leads up to the mother/wife's death and I was literally rolling my eyes at the stupidity of how it happened. This starts a pattern of the youngest daughter's feelings of guilt/visions of her mother and nightmares. Honestly seeing her have these nightmares was touching because I lost my husband in 2019 and her grief seemed realistic. However given her age, the act that caused her mother's death was something you'd expect from a much younger child. The funeral scene is brief but then we see the oldest daughter smoking outside afterward and a fairly disgusting scene follows, which was very graphic and completely unnecessary. After they move to Genoa, the daughter continues to have nightmares and the oldest daughter rebels in a huge way, with sex and partying, hanging out with a boy that her dad knows nothing about and generally becomes huge "witch". This continues through the whole movie but it bothered me that at the peak of it, the dad never reprimanded her for it, and honestly seems to be clueless about the whole thing. The dad takes a job in Genoa teaching a class and becomes close to his students but his interest in his daughters never waivers, which I liked. The youngest daughter was the most likable character of them all and I really resonated with her. There were a few times when things got a little scary and the dad had to rescue her and I really liked these scenes. The scenery of course was beautiful and it was interesting to see the director's use of Genoa. I didn't know much about it before and aside from watching Rick Steeves or Samantha Brown, this movie could be a good travelogue in a way. I was disappointed that the youngest daughter's guilt and nightmares about her mother weren't addressed more because that aspect was really interesting to me. I gave this movie three stars and really two and half is more appropriate given that the only swear word is the F word which is used a lot and becomes annoying, but overall I enjoyed this movie. It's mostly dramatic and there's little to no humor at all, but Collin Firth is wonderful in the main role. If you can get past the first 30 minutes, the movie gets better.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I liked it but I think it might only appeal to a small audience of a particular type. I can imagine lots of people not liking it.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

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Michael Winterbottom

Director

Colin Firth

Joe

Catherine Keener

Barbara

Willa Holland

Kelly

Perla Haney-Jardine

Mary

Hope Davis

Marianne

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Paul Byrnes

Sydney Morning Herald

Whether you go with this idea might depend on how many times you've seen it before, in sentimental American films. The fact that the film is more artful doesn't make the ghost of the mother less of a cliche.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 5, 2009

Full Review

Jim Schembri

The Age (Australia)

Though he labours the symbolism of the maze, Winterbottom infuses this otherwise subtle observational drama with the verisimilitude that has become his chief style signature.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 4, 2009

Full Review

Ruth Hessey

MovieTime, ABC Radio National

A delightful sojourn for one indie filmmaker and his cast and crew in a fascinating old Italian town.

Nov 1, 2009

Full Review

Niall Browne

Movies in Focus

Genova is an immensely fulfilling film that features strong performances and interesting visuals that make it a cut above the norm. The cast deliver muscular performances that add true emotion to the film giving the viewer a touching cinematic experience.

Rated: 4/5

Jun 24, 2021

Full Review

Kate Rodger

Newshub (NZ)

Dull, and wholly undernourishing.

Rated: 2/5

Sep 13, 2019

Full Review

Matt Pais

Metromix.com

You know a movie like this is working when it holds you tight and nervous in every moment, even when very little is happening.

Rated: 4/5

May 19, 2010

Full Review

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Synopsis

Joe is a widowed teacher bereft at the death of his wife Marianne in an accident caused by their youngest daughter Mary. Offered a teaching job in Italy, he takes Mary and her older sibling Kelly to Genova. Initially loving the new lifestyle, Joe soon finds himself torn between memories of Marianne and the possibility of a new romance while the guilt-wracked Mary finds dangerous solace with role models who resemble her mother.

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Executive Producer: Tessa Ross
Screenwriter: Laurence Coriat, Michael Winterbottom
Production Co: Revolution Films
Rating: R (Some Sexuality|Language|Drug Use)
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 22, 2016

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