14/02/2017 - The unprecedented coupling of Paola Cortellesi and Antonio Albanese takes centre stage in Riccardo Milani’s comedy, produced by Wildside with Medusa Film and distributed in 500 cinemas from today

Paola Cortellesi and Antonio Albanese in Mamma o papà? (© Claudio Iannone)

When times are hard, comedy takes the lead. In the USA, with Trumpian impropriety on the rise, cinema is entering into an era of political flawlessness. On the outskirts of this empire, however, there’s a tendency to shine a distorted mirror on this exhausted society and to snap an unflattering and opaque selfie of modern-day customs. Mom or Dad? [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Riccardo Milani (Welcome Mr President [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) - produced by Wildside together with Medusa Film and distributed by the latter from today in 500 cinemas - fits into the “irreverent comedy” category, with intentional forays into realm of gross-out comedy and episodes of hamsters getting kicked and slammed against windows.

Leading the cast of Mom or Dad? - a remake of the hit French comedy Daddy or Mommy [+see also:
trailer
making of
film profile], directed by Martin Bourboulon – is the couple composed of Paola Cortellesi and Antonio Albanese. The plot is simple: Valeria and Nicola are getting divorced after 15 years of marriage and, given that their three children are borderline ball-breakers, the couple stoop to low blows and dirty tricks in an effort to fob them off on each other. Not least because engineer Valeria has just been assigned an important project in Sweden and successful gynaecologist Nicola has finally been awarded the long-awaited role of flying doctor for AMREF as part of the In Africa mission, as well as enjoying a little flirtation with a young nurse (Matilde Gioli).

The judge responsible for awarding custody of the children (Anna Bonaiuto) is somewhat confused by this reversal of the classic loving parent role. So the children get to choose: wise Giulietto, who reads chess manuals, smartphone-addicted Viola, and rebellious teen Matteo, who believes school to be “an outdated institution”. Mum and Dad’s battle to make themselves seem as unpleasant as possible eventually culminates in a veritable War of the Roses, with Roman actress Cortellesi turning into a home-grown Cameron Diaz, but boasting with a broad Veneto accent.

The beautiful and abundant city of Vicenza merely acts as a backdrop for this souped-up love story about family conflict, which, for all its intelligence and irreverence, fails in its primary objective: to entertain. Especially when compared to Goffredo Parise’s first novels on the small, bigoted province of Vicenza or explosively corrosive films about Italian hypocrisy and conformism which were also shot in this same city, such as Il commissario Pepe by Ettore Scola, Il prete bello by Carlo Mazzacurati, and Primo amore by Matteo Garrone, which are in a whole other league of their own.