Adagio movie storyline. Manuel, a sixteen-year-old boy, tries to enjoy life as best he can while taking care of his elderly father. Victim of blackmail, he goes to a party to take some photos of a mysterious individual but, feeling tricked, decides to escape. He thus finds himself pursued by blackmailers who turn out to be extremely dangerous and determined to eliminate what they believe to be an inconvenient witness. Manuel understands that he is entangled in something that is bigger than him and will be forced to ask for protection from two ex-criminals, old acquaintances of his father.
Adagio is a 2023 Italian crime drama film directed by Stefano Sollima from a screenplay by Sollima and Stefano Bises, and starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo and Valerio Mastandrea. The film concludes Sollima’s trilogy about crime in Rome (preceded by ACAB (2012) and Suburra (2015).
The director of ‘Soldado’ and ‘Sicario’ returns to his city, Rome to close the trilogy started with ‘A.C.A.B.’ and ‘Suburra’. Adagio was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it premiered on September 2, 2023. The film was released theatrically in Italy on December 14, 2023.
Film Review for Adagio
Adagio, an Italian film about personal transformations, shares an apocalyptic feel with director Stefano Sollima’s 2018 movie Sicario: Day of the Soldado (written by Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan). In this case, however, the action primarily takes place in a singular cityscape setting (Rome), much like Sollima’s popular crime series Gomorrah (2014-21), which is mostly set in Naples.
As Roman wildfires lead to constant power outages in Adagio, a young gangster (Gianmarco Franchini as Manuel) — the son of a notorious mob boss (Toni Servillo as Daytona) — colludes with a police sergeant (Adriano Giannini as Vasco) after being caught with a male prostitute.
The young protagonist subsequently reaches out to a blind associate (Valerio Mastandrea as Polniuman) for help, only to be redirected to an older criminal known as “The Camel” (Pierfrancesco Favino as Cammello) — a man dying from cancer who intends to spend his last remaining days/months/years with his concerned wife (Silvia Salvatori as Silvia). Somewhat epic like Michael Mann’s Heat (1995) and political in nature like Sollima’s underrated series ZeroZeroZero (2020), Adagio executes its brutal messaging through cinematographer Paolo Carnera’s observant visual language.
On the surface, Adagio explores themes of masculinity and homosexuality. But the film is essentially a character-driven drama, one that doesn’t expect audiences to sympathize with any of the main players. Cammello — portrayed by a nearly unrecognizable Favino — doesn’t intend to harm anyone at this stage in his life, but the man’s demeanor alone suggests someone familiar with the gritty Rome underworld.
Meanwhile, the police sergeant Vasco is initially presented as a loving father, but he gleefully scowls at Manuel about his sexuality before committing one of the film’s grisliest crimes. And so Adagio doesn’t ask viewers to choose their fighter, so to speak; it’s not about “relating” to the protagonists/antiheroes.
Sollima, it seems, underlines the societal conditions that influence the actions of each main character as the city burns in the background. More than once in Adagio, the director cites “the end of the world” with his script, co-written by Stefano Bises. The question is this: who, if anyone, deserves a second chance?
Adagio (2023)
Directed by: Stefano Sollima
Starring: Pierfrancesco Favino, Toni Servillo, Valerio Mastandrea, Adriano Giannini, Gianmarco Franchini, Francesco Di Leva, Lorenzo Adorni, Silvia Salvatori, Marzio El Moety, Emilio Franchini
Screenplay by: Stefano Bises, Stefano Sollima
Production Design by: Paki Meduri
Cinematography by: Paolo Carnera
Film Editing by: Matthew Newman
Costume Design by: Mariano Tufano
Set Decoration by: Gaia Zambelli
Art Direction by: Giulia Carnevali
Music by: Subsonica
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Vision Distribution (Italy)
Release Date: September 2, 2023 (Venice), December 14, 2023 (Italy), April 18, 2024 (Germany)
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