Movie Review: Parthenope

3.5 stars out of 5

In the past handful of years, I’ve become lightly addicted to vintage, melancholy summer-by-the-shore movies, with extra points if they’re European. They’re generally slow-paced, in beautiful settings, sexy, with complicated relationships, and often contain a coming-of-age element. Parthenope is a modern Italian film that checks all the boxes yet still wasn’t fully satisfying.

This is the third movie I’ve seen from writer/director Paolo Sorrentino. First was the pretty good and very interesting This Must Be the Place starring Sean Penn as an aging goth rocker. More recently was the very good, semi-autobiographical The Hand of God about growing up in Naples.

For Parthenope, Sorrentino returns to his beloved Napoli. The story begins in 1950, shortly before our protagonist is born. But she is destined for big things, at least according to the Commander, a garrulous older fellow who arrives by boat, carrying a gift for the baby-to-be: an ornate carriage that will serve as her bed. And when it’s time to choose her name, it’s the Commander who suggests Parthenope, the original name of their city of Naples.

We rejoin the tale in the summer of 1968, and va-va-voom what a hottie Parthe has grown into! She even makes her older brother Raimondo feel funny inside. I was enjoying the movie but as we hit the streets of swingin’ Napoli, everyone was a little too stylish and it reminded me of lazy period pieces where they forget that not all cars in any time period are new; there are always old clunkers around.

Newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta does a fine job playing Parthenope from ages 18 to 32. There’s confidence throughout: She knows she’s gorgeous, and does know how to tease, yet proactively follows the advice of Pat Benatar and never uses sex as a weapon. And though Parthenope appreciates all the attention, all she really wants is to attend university and study anthropology.

This led to another problem with the movie for me. As we meet Parthe again in 1973, she is presented as the woman who has it all: smart and beautiful. Now, it’s not like I expected to become an expert in anthropology from watching this, but most movies do a better job of showing a studious person. Maybe she’s telling Raimondo and friends that no, she can’t play beach volleyball because she has three books open on a desk and she’s wearing glasses and there’s a pencil behind her ear! See, it’s easy. But Sorrentino just expects us to accept it. She’s in school! She’s a genius!

Ah who cares, it’s summer, Raimondo suggests traveling to Capri with sis and her long-suffering boyfriend Sandrino. That’s when we non-Europeans are thrown a couple of bones: Parthenon runs into Gary Oldman (who probably didn’t have to think too hard about accepting a small part as a noted American in an Italian resort), and also we get a little Sinatra on the soundtrack. Later, a seemingly random mention of Billy Wilder really made me smile. (As another tip of the cap to old Hollywood, Sorrentino gives Parthenope a trait of always wanting to have a ready rejoinder ”like in old movies.”)

The fascinating characters one meets in life — if one is open to it — is another key theme here. In a restaurant, an agent sees how striking Parthenope is and insists she go to Naples’ top acting coach to become a movie star. Or later, returning to anthropology, she visits San Gennaro (the church, not the sausage-and-peppers feast) where the archbishop is a real creepy dude.

And as Parthenope ages, we get a bit more depth. There is tragedy to deal with, and the fading of youth, and the question of whether to settle down or not, or to leave Naples.

It doesn’t add up to a great movie, but I did think it improved into something worth watching. Especially if you can’t afford a trip to Italy right now.