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Film2011

What a Beautiful Day

Directed by Gennaro Nunziante

  • comedy

The story

Checco, an uneducated but self-satisfied fellow from Milan, who has always dreamed of becoming a police officer, fails his entrance exam for the third time. It must be said that at the oral examination Checco said that the reason why he wanted to join the police was benefits in kind and cronyism! But the young man has connections and he soon finds himself a security agent at the Milan Cathedral. Of course the bumbling idiot proves a living catastrophe! Spotted by Sufien, an Arab terrorist who is preparing an attack against the cathedral, Checco appears as the perfect sucker. To manipulate him, he sends his charming sister Farah to him, with the mission to seduce him...

What it’s like

Bright, sun-washed daylight over pale stone and the open streets of Milan, shifting to dusty Apulian countryside of olive groves and whitewashed farmhouses. The camera stays steady and unfussy, letting broad physical comedy and quick deadpan exchanges carry each scene, while a bouncy pop score with accordion-tinged rhythms keeps the tempo buoyant. The vibe is cheeky, sunny and irreverent, with an undercurrent of affectionate satire about Italian bureaucracy, vanity and small-town cynicism. Pacing is brisk and episodic, built on set-piece gags rather than suspense, and its central figure is a self-regarding buffoon whose schemes keep collapsing in ways that feel more endearing than cruel. Intensity is low: crude jokes, sexual innuendo and slapstick tumbles, with a comic terror-adjacent thread that stays bloodless and never truly menaces. It suits a lazy weekend afternoon, a comfort rewatch or a laugh with friends, and it is for viewers who enjoy politically incorrect farce with warmth and no real violence.

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