Don't Tell: La Bestia nel cuore (2006 International Oscar Nominee)

Starring:  Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Alessio Boni, Stefania Rocca, Angela Finocchiaro, Giuseppe Battiston, Luigi Lo Cascio, Valerio Binasco, Francesca Inaudi, Lucy Akhurst, Lewis Lemperuer Palmer, and Jeke-Omer Boyayanlar

After handling the transfer of her parents’ remains to another graveyard, Sabina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) finds herself plagued by disturbing dreams and vague memories that hint at childhood abuse.  Ashamed, she keeps that secret from her boyfriend, Franco (Alessio Boni), an actor.  Sabina travels to America where her brother, Daniele (Luigi Lo Cascio), lives with his wife, Anne (Lucy Akhurst), and their two children, Giovanni (Lewis Lemperuer Palmer) and Bill (Jeke-Omer Boyayanlar).  Instead of finding solace in Daniele, Sabina learns that he too is plagued by the trauma of childhood abuse, and together the two siblings must find reassurance in each other.

There are also two subplots.  One involves a budding relationship between two of Sabina’s friends, the blind Emilia (Stefania Rocca) and Maria (Angela Finocchiaro), an older woman whose husband abandoned her for a woman their daughter’s age.  The second deals with Franco and Andrea Negri (Giuseppe Battiston), the director of a TV series in which Franco is an actor, as the two men deal with issues of creativity and art.

La Bestia nel cuore (literally means “The Beast in the Heart”), released in the U.S. as Don’t Tell, received an Oscar nomination for “Best Foreign Language Film of the Year” as a representative of Italy.  This compelling drama is a harrowing tale of familial betrayal, although the subplots are average melodrama.  When the script focuses on Sabina and Daniele, director Cristina Comencini (who co-wrote the film’s script and wrote the novel upon which it’s based) does her best work.  Sabina’s dreams and memories come as nightmarish flights of fancy, which ultimately reveal the awful, horrible truth.  As with many foreign films, Don’t Tell is a well-acted character drama that isn’t afraid of having characters actually talk to one another and speak and act like adults.

B+

A version of this review also appears at http://www.negromancer.com