Finalmente l’alba (Finally Dawn): Venice Film Review
With recognisable faces such as Lily James, Willem Dafoe and Joe Keery on the bill, I was keen to see Saverio Costanzo‘s latest Italian movie, Finalmente l’alba (Finally Dawn). However, I would urge you not to bother.
The film is set in 1950s Rome and tells the story of Mimosa (Rebecca Antonaci), a young woman who goes to Cinecittà studios to audition to be an extra and ends up on a wild night out with Hollywood stars Josephine Esperanto (James) and Sean Lockwood (Keery).
The fatal flaw with Finally Dawn is that it focuses on the wrong person. It might have been fine if it had been told through the eyes of one of the film’s stars. However, Costanzo tells the story from an outsider’s point of view and makes a wide-eyed, mousy character his leading lady. Sitting through a two-hour and 20-minute movie starring a boring character is a real endurance test.
Mimosa is shy and innocent and she doesn’t speak often because she doesn’t know English. I cannot fathom why Costanza chose to lead with such a bland character who doesn’t drive the action or inject any energy or excitement into the feature. She is simply an observer who gets dragged to various locations because Josephine takes a liking to her. Antonaci does a decent job, it’s not her fault, but Mimosa did not deserve this substantial role.
While I like James and Keery in other projects, I wasn’t particularly taken with them here; they were just fine. Rachel Sennott usually brightens any movie but she isn’t used enough as actress Nan Roth to really make an impact. The only truly innocent party is Dafoe as Josephine’s Italian friend Rufus. He is wonderful in this kind and caring role.
But it wasn’t just the characters – the wild party sequence was lacking that hedonistic and chaotic Babylon energy and the ending and bizarrely modern needle drop were also baffling choices.
Finally Dawn is too long and too dull – give it a miss.
Screening in competition at the Venice Film Festival