Elisa

The latest drama from Venice regular Leonardo Di Costanzo, Elisa is dialogue-heavy and dramatically inert.

This is a smaller, less gripping film than it could have been, but then perhaps that’s to some degree the point.

Golino breathes a needed dose of anger and incredulity into the film playing a grieving mother who lost her son and refuses the professor’s insistence on empathy for perpetrators of crimes.

Elisa is a film that is more quietly affecting than overtly gripping. Its greatest strength lies in Barbara Ronchi’s performance, which brings depth, nuance, and credibility to a character whose past actions are both horrifying and enigmatic.