On the Edge

Susanna, a 50-year-old woman who has always fought against women's discrimination, sees a young woman being beaten on the road to her summer house. She convinces her husband to take her home and help her. But when her son comes with his girlfriend to celebrate her birthday, things change...

"La bella gente" is a very interesting film about how easy is to help people when they are far away and don't intrude with your lifestyle and your beautiful middle class life, and how easy it's to criticize others but more difficult to see your own problems and failures. Susanna's character, all desire to help and show how kind and generous she is, has to confront her own prejudices and worldviews. Not only her, everyone in the movie has something to answer from, and no one here is perfect or flawless. Making Nadja, the young foreign woman, a kind of a pet for the family, shows a lot of what is wrong with some kind of views of society and lifestyles. The plot may not be very original, but it is very well developed, and the direction, not flashy, but stolid, helps to elevate the picture. The acting is quite good too, even if sometimes is a little bit one-note.

All in all, it is a very good movie, that will make the viewer think a little bit about the world we live in, and the situations that bring people to the places they are at, and the decisions they choose.