Out Of My League(Italian,Netflix)
Starring Ludovica Francesconi, Giuseppe Maggio, Gaja Masciale and Jozef Gjura.
Directed by Alice Filippi
Rating: **
Don’t get them wrong. They don’t mean any harm. The team behind this flouncy effervescent love-at-first-swipe rom-com are probably good people who go to church and give to the charity to support the esoteric disease that this film’s heroine suffers from.
But the problem is, Marta(Ludovica Francesconi) is so self consciously quirky and fey, it’s like watching a character which is designed from a cookie cutter. Nothing remotely interesting about Marta’s queer eccentricity.
Queer brings me to Marta’s two gay room mates a male and female, they are all the family that she knows. Federica (Gaja Masciale) and Jacopo (Jozef Gjura) are with Marta through thick and thin, mostly thin because that’s how the plot is.Take it or shake it. It is heavy on topping but thin on crust. Which is an ideal situation for a pizza. Not this Italian Cinderella-meets-Prince Charming yarn which is more yawn than yum.
It is love at first sight for Marta when the aristocratic hunk Arturo (Giuseppe Maggio) begins to pay her more than a passing attention. There is a sarcasm-filled dinner with Arturo’s snobbish family which seems to seek its reference straight from Erich Segal’s Love Story.
Marta for all her quirkiness and wealthless existence has a great deal of swabhimaan(selfrespect). She won’t be impressed by Arturo’s handsome looks and illimitable wealth. If you buy that you are welcome to sit through this pea brained rom.com with no room for any emotions.
By the time Arturo finds out about Marta’s illness , there is little doubt that she will find True Love wrapped up in the most expensive gauze,till death do us fart.
Out Of My League has a whimsical central performance. Ludovica Francesconi’s Marta goes a long way in giving the plot a sense of purpose,no matter how puny and askew. But I suggest you watch Lekh Tandon’s Ankhiyon Ke Jharonkhon Se instead. There the working class waif Ranjita Kaur falls for the rich brat Sachin Pialgoankar. We cared for the couple. In Out Of My League we couldn’t care less.