It might be necessary to have a certain kind of family to truly appreciate this kind of disaster movie. If you know someone – your sister-in-law, perhaps? Or your least favourite cousin? – whose reaction on learning another relative will not be attending Christmas dinner is “How dare that bitch not show up!” then you are on The Fire Within You’s wavelength. The kind that can appreciate the absolute worst possible family gathering as a work of art. And if you are lucky enough to have never experienced a car crash from the inside, The Fire Within You will give you all the thrills of a fast-paced catastrophe with none of the whiplash.
Antonio (Lino Muselli in the Jason Bateman part) is a successful publisher in Milan, happily married to Enrica (Elena Radonicich) with two teenage children. They live in a large apartment full of books that’s been cheerily decorated for Christmas. Antonio has two sisters. He also has a mother. Angela (Vanessa Scalera, more on whom later, in the Nancy Marchand part) is introduced, cigarette dangling out of mouth and knife in hand, creeping across the kitchen floor to catch and kill the capon she has bought as the centerpiece of dinner. The capon escapes (and spends the rest of the day crapping all over the apartment) but this is the least of everybody’s worries. Angela is the world’s worst cook, and there are many droll little moments showing her lack of talent in the kitchen, especially with the Napoli ‘Christmas salad’ of cauliflower, anchovies, and olive oil. But to try to stop her from cooking would be like scolding an erupting volcano. Antonio has clearly learned the hard way not to try. Refusing to eat the food she has so horribly cooked would be even worse, of course. When the teenagers sneak back from the deli downstairs with emergency supplies, Antonio and his sister Paola (Ivana Lotito) warn, in the tones of soldiers not mentioning the war, that the kids have never seen their grandmother as angry as she will be if Angela catches them eating other food.
Though it’s not like the kids haven’t seen their grandmother. Angela pulls up her dress, hitches down her support tights and shows the scars from the Caesarian that brought Antonio into the world on the slightest pretext. Cinematographer Vladan Radović used handheld cameras as if the viewers were another guest on the day, moving through rooms to peer at faces or hands, at quick whispered conversations or booze thrown down a throat. Lorenzo Peluso’s editing allows space for the comedy of all the misbehaviour to land perfectly, like when Angela shows those scars to the day’s unexpected guest: Giulio (Tommaso Ragno), one of Italy’s most renowned novelists. He is in Milan to discuss switching to Antonio’s publishing house and to everyone’s horror has invited himself over. How can Antonio tell the man who could make his fortune that spending Christmas alone is preferable to dinner with his mother? Why dance on a landmine, unless you have no choice? Instead he will hope for the best while bracing himself for the eventual explosion.
Hoo boy is it an explosion, the kind that comes from people who know and hate each other too well. Antonio’s wife and children are resigned to the drama, while grateful they have some distance from it. But only some. The way in which the daughter, Valentina (Nicole Malaj), tries at one point to simultaneously distract and cheer up her father is gasp-worthy, and from the correct angle hysterically funny. (It takes him a moment, but to his credit Antonio eventually hugs her and thanks her with a laugh for the effort.) Enrica has not fled because she loves Antonio and Angela is the price she has to pay, and Antonio is smart enough to be grateful. Meanwhile Antonio and Paola have the kind of rapport only seen in siblings who survived abusive childhoods together: they might be very different as adults, and not even like each other that much, but they are ride-or-die. And when it matters they can still instinctively move together like barracudas avoiding a shark. Mr. Muselli is very good as someone who knows when to submit and when to resist, who has gone through the five stages of grief about this family set-up, and who resents like hell that this is still the best he can do about it.
But above all there is Angela. Who loves her grandson exactly as he is, even if she uses slurs to describe him to his face. Who informs Enrica how impressed she is both with her career, and how Enrica has used her career to cope with her failure as a mother. Who never misses a chance to tell Antonio how he ruined her life, and in the same breath ask what kind of son moves so far from his mother. Who ignores it when her cigarette ash drops into the soup. Who drinks so much she thinks she is flirting with Giulio instead of looking like the witch from a child’s pop-up book. And who is delighted when Giulio flirts back. Ms. Scalera does not so much own the movie as stomp through it like Godzilla (if Godzilla chainsmoked). To say that what she does here is overpowering, incredible, and astonishing is an understatement.
But Ms. Scalera is only four years older than Mr. Muselli. This is the kind of sexist decision that Hollywood left behind decades ago, so – as impressive as the performance is – it’s a shame that Ms. Scalera is the actress who had the chance to do it. On the other hand, director Edoardo De Angelis, who adapted the titular novel for screen with Francesco Piccolo and Ilaria Macchia, could no more have ignored that performance than, well, Tokyo could Godzilla. The decision paid off beautifully. The Fire Within You is a perfectly contained atomic bomb. Disaster movies are not to everyone’s taste, but whether or not you enjoy the conflagration you sure can admire the spectacle.
The Fire Within You recently played at the Venice Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the IMDB site for the title.
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