MADLY

Paolo Genovese

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Paolo Genovese's Perfect Strangers (2016) is the most remade film of all time, with 24 versions centring on dinner guests who come to regret sharing the text secrets of their mobile phones. Another supper sitting provides the starting point for Madly (aka Follmemente), which is the latest offering from the good people at CinemaItaliaUK. With its wisps of wit and ingenuity, this genially enjoyable romcom is bound to attract imitators, although it's probably not destined for the record books.

As 50 year-old Piero (Edoardo Leo) stands outside a chemist shop gazing at a slot machine, his brain crew - Eros (Claudio Santamaria), Romeo (Maurizio Lastrico), Professore (Marco Giallini), and Valium (Rocco Papaleo) - debate whether it's presumptious to buy a condom on a first date and what each make says about the purchaser. Meanwhile, 35 year-old Lara (Pilar Fogliati) and her team - Trilli (Emanuela Fanelli), Giulietta (Vittoria Puccini), Alfa (Claudia Pandolfi), and Scheggia (Maria Ciara Giannetta) - wonder whether they've done the right thing inviting a comparative stranger to dine in her flat, while experimenting with lighting effects.

Looking up from the pavement, Pierro sees the lights flashing like a disco before stumbling through the darkness on being told the door is open. Still unsure whether she should have worn such a short dress, Lara pours wine and regrets saying that she doesn't like leaving her nest when Piero thanks her for inviting him over. Each utterance merits a cutaway to a numskull reaction, as his wise men squash into what looks like a factory office, while her streetwise quartet huddle in a trendily decorated pied-à-terre. Each is aware they are over-thinking and second-guessing everything, but they're both nervous and keen to make a good impression without wishing to appear over-eager before they have sussed the other out.

As she tries to decide whether to follow the feminist line of Carla Lonzi and pour the wine or let the man do it, Lara gets flustered when the over clock pings and suggests they lie down on the table. Still embarrassed by listing the kind of places he doesn't go out to, Piero is happy to laugh at the ice-breaking faux pas and they are more relaxed as they sit down to lasagna. Seeking something to say, Lara recalls an acting class exercise in which she had to imagine her partner as a boy and they decide to play the game (while not taking it seriously in their heads while gazing at each other intensely).

He guesses she was a poised tween and a moody adolescent, while she guesses he was a calm boy. Nodding, he admits that he had a girlfriend at an early age because he liked stability. But there is consternation among all the numskulls when she jokes that she was a teenage nymphomaniac and she's relieved when he responds phlegmatically.

Piero is also helpful when she gets the hiccups and he makes her jump by roaring at her. She is relieved to have been cured so quickly and they are discussing things they only do when they're alone when she hiccups again. He is showing her how to drink from the wrong side of the glass when his phone goes off and Lara notices a picture of his young daughter on the screen as he scuttles off to take the call. Her crew debate whether he's a married sleazeball or a caring dad, as she eavesdrops on Piero reassuring Rosa that her friends still like her after they argue while watching a film.

Bashful, he returns to the table and makes sure she knows he's divorced (much to the relief of her unit), as he tries to explain how tricky it is trying simultaneously to be a parent and a friend. Both sets of numskulls scrabble through filing cabinets, as they seek the right word to make Pierro sound sensitive, but firm and Lara seem accepting and impressed. As he reveals how hard it was not being with Rosa each day, she says she finds it touching that he is such a doting father.

Feeling the need to say something, she claims the furniture she restores and sells in her shop are like her children and her brainiacs are appalled by her miscalculation. But Piero smiles indulgently, as she explains how she likes to imagine the lives of their previous owners. However, he is more taken aback when she volunteers that she has had her eggs frozen and goes into too much detail when he admits to having seen some eggs in an ultrasound scan. Back at an awkward place, the pair fall silent and their brains trusts argue amongst themselves over whose fault the misspeakings were.

As he looks away at a text from his ex telling him to collect his daughter, Piero is surprised when Lara offers to come with him rather than ending the date. He insists Rosa will be fine at her slumber party and is amused when Lara asks if he is so intuitive when it comes to the high schoolers he teaches. He regrets not pursuing a career in academe, but admits the competition was too strong. At that moment, a loud cheer rings out from the courtyard and he admits that he is missing the local football derby and has to check the score on his phone. Lara's crew are not impressed by him being a sports fan and mock when he claims that his promising playing career was ruined by an injury. However, Lara shows him the scooter scar on her shoulder and they trade childhood nicks until she wins by revealing the hammer left from the Communist tattoo she has had partially removed from her neck.

Just as they are pausing at the start of a potential kiss, the doorbell rings and Lara goes down to see a man in the courtyard. Piero's foursome comment on the nick-nacks he finds as he wanders round the room and try to work out Lara's personality. Peering through the window, he sees her chatting defensively and suggests that he should leave when she returns carrying a large box from the married man she's been seeing. She thinks it's best that he should go, but Piero buys time by wondering what the gift is and wishes he hadn't bothered when she finds an engagement ring in a nest of boxes.

Furious with her lover for trying to swoon her into commitment when he won't leave his wife, Lara claims all men are the same and are clueless when it comes to knowing what women want. When he protests, she makes Piero describe what she is wearing and he does well enough for her to let him off the hook. For now. She lights a camomile cigarette and the numskulls get giggly in the fug, as inhibitions start to tumble. Both sets celebrate the first kiss and then offer advice as Lara and Piero tumble into the bedroom ripping at clothing.

There's disappointment in both camps when Piero climaxes too soon, but a cunnilingual save has Lara's ladies teetering along a thin line together, as his lads urge Eros to pedal faster on an exercise bike to ensure Piero keeps going. As the couple flop back beside each other, the numskulls simultaneously rip into their own versions of Queen's `Somebody to Love', complete with pounding drums and falsetto harmonies (very funny). Following pillow talk about past lovers and what else they could get up to in bed, Lara excuses herself after comparing their coupling to being with a huggable dog. She regrets saying something that could be misinterpreted and peeps through the bathroom door, as Piero dresses. Her quartet debate whether he's planning to kiss and run, but they are relieved when he goes to the freezer to fetch the ice cream he had brought and Lara slips on his shirt so they can sit on the sofa and indulge. Realising they feel good together, but acutely aware they are still relative strangers, they discuss tomorrow's tasks and Lara hints that it's getting late. She slips on a red Che Guevara t-shirt and starts to tidy away. Piero offers to recycle the bottles and leaves with an awkward kiss.

Crestfallen, Lara closes the bedroom door and sits on the bed. As the doorbell rings, the female numskulls tentatively open their door to find their male counterparts standing outside. They discuss the night, with its missteps, gauche utterances, and moments of quiet trust and overdue pleasure. Debating the wisdom and practicality of the guys lingering for a while, they are guided by Romeo and Giulietta, who think they've found someone they can be comfortable with. Romeo announces that he's hungry and, as Giulietta helps him cook spaghetti, with oil and chilli, we cut to Lara and Piero preparing the same meal with watchful smiles that broaden, as they try to maintain their dignity in front of one another while slurping spaghetti.

We'll never know whether the Truly and Deeply will follow on from the Madly, but Genovese and co-writers Isabella Aguilar, Lucia Calamaro, Paolo Costella, and Flaminia Gressi leave us with reasons to hope at the end of this deftly observed treatise on the laws of attraction and the rules of the dating game. It would probably work just as well with Edoard Leo and the excellent Pilar Fogliati being left to their own devices, as they are splendidly matched and Genovese neatly defies the 180° axis to convey the shifting balance between Lara and Piero, as they seek to discover more about their date without giving away anything to damning about themselves. Fabrizio Lucci's camerawork and Consuelo Catucci's editing conspire to make the action both intimate and wary. But it takes a while for the parallel plotline to get up to speed, despite the knowing performances and the amusing contrasts in the interiors created by production designer Massimiliano Sturiale and set decorator, Ilaria Fallacara.

Drawn by Malcolm Judge, `The Numskulls' was a comic strip that ran in The Beezer from 1962 until 1979 before subsequently featuring in both The Beano and The Dandy. This made inspired use of little people operating the controls and making the decisions for a balding man who was blithely ignorant of their existence. The conceit was copied for the American sitcom, Herman's Head (1991-94), as well as for a 1999 RAI commercial directed by Genovese himself and Luca Miniero. More recently, it was refined for children by Pete Docter's Inside Out (2015) and Kelsey Mann's Inside Out 2 (2024). In the Pixar duo, colour and character design was used to make it clear what to expect from Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger as they sought to do the best for young Riley Andersen. But Genovese and his fellow scribes opt not to spend time introducing the brain people, as they have decided to reveal aspects of Lara and Piero's personalities as the evening progresses. However, this means that we never really get to know who Professore, Valium, Eros and Romeo are (indeed, the latter pair are the only two to be named on-screen) or why Alfa, Trilli, Scheggia, and Giulietta are their counterparts espousing logic, lust, rebellion, and romance.

Initially, the cutaways to their conflabs feel as self-conscious as those in Family Guy (1999-). But, as Genovese starts to leave longer pauses and has Leo and Fogliati exchange awkward looks while the numskulls argue among themselves, the conceit begins to work better. The scramble through filing cabinets to find synonyms during proves the turning point, while the Queen pastiches are triumphantly hilarious. It's debatable whether the denouementary rapprochement quite comes off, but we'll settle for the charming sight of Piero and Lara's eyes meeting as they twirl their forks in the pan and unself-consciously slurp spaghetti as though they've known each other for years.