Review

Like director Tornatore’s Cinema Paradiso, Malèna tells a story of WWII Italy through the eyes of a young boy. But Malèna, while containing many comedic moments, is a starker tale of resentment, jealousy and loss, revealing a darker side of human nature. Twelve-year-old Renato is one of the many males (of a wide range of ages) in a small Sicilian village with a schoolboy crush on Malèna, an outsider from another province who married a local man who is now off at war. Her beauty and grace illicit lust, fantasy and incessant gossip. The hardships of the continuing war bring out the worst in many. The report of Malèna’s husband’s death marks her as fair game for the lecherous (apparently all the males) and an object of hatred for the hypocritically pious (apparently all the females). As Malèna’s position in the community worsens, Renato grows beyond his immature obsession with her to recognize and appreciate her as a human being, a person suffering isolation in a sea of envy and prejudice. A superb re-creation of the era effectively underscores this affecting drama of one woman’s struggle to survive hostile forces. (Italian with English subtitles)