(courtesy IMDb)
Doing something fun and interesting with a well-trod and cliche-saturated genre like romantic comedy is always a challenge.
It’s why many romcoms, delightful though they are, are barely discernible riffs on well-worn tropes and cliches, serving up just enough escapist romanticism to keep eager audiences happy; occasionally, though a romcom emerges from the near-identical pack and serves up a story which takes in all the expected moments but in ways that make you believe with fervour and heart (appropriate) in the genre all over again.
Such a cinematic slice of difference is Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) directed by Massimiliano Bruno to a screenplay co-written with Andrea Bassi, Damiano Bruè and Lisa Riccardi which takes us to Roma and a chance meeting on a bus between feisty feminist lone wolf Alessandra (Claudia Pandolfi) and handsome cyclist Valerio (Edoardo Leo).
Punctuated by dialogue that doesn’t hold any punches – the script makes it clear almost immediately that here are two people who know themselves well, who have opinions and who are definitely not afraid to share them – the scene is as meet-cute as it gets in one sense, with audiences left in no doubt that these two high individualised people are destined for each other, but also one which dares to go beyond flirty comments and eyes locked on the other.
There’s a healthy sense that here are two people who are as different as it’s possible to be and yet who have chemistry to burn, attraction by the metric ton and who may well be more than just passing commuters on a bus.
And so, they are, with lots of s*x following; lots and lots and lots of it with both parties agreeing they are there to have fun and nothing else; what makes all this unprotected fun so problem-free is that Alessandra has just found out she can’t have kids and Valerio is sterile so nothing beyond some short-term bedroom shenanigans can come from their liaison.
Yep, you know that won’t last don’t you?
All of those unproblematic moments give way to the shuddering realisation that maybe life can never be that consequence-free that Valerio is Alessandra’s new boss when she turns up at the school she’s just been appointed to to find out he’s the headmaster.
While this is a tried-and-true romcom staple, it never feels old, tired and stale in Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) which takes this moment, heightens the awkwardness and the proceeds to let our strings-free lovers keep going at it like over-egged rabbits.
The intention is to keep the relationship on the downlow, not make too big a deal of it; it’s a fine approach until the woman who couldn’t fall pregnant, does, and the man who couldn’t get in that state, clearly can.
His doctor shrugs it off as just one of those statistical things, but obviously Alessandra and Valerio can’t be that glib, and it sets in train a storyline that brings them together and drives them apart, over and over, but not simply because that’s what the gods of romcom tropes demand.
This is another way in which Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) shines; while a tad too many romcoms throw in a giant spanner in the rapidly romanticising works, whether it organically works in the story or not (and good lord, it’s an insufferable waste of time when it doesn’t), the back-and-forths in this delight of a film are based on two very real feeling people knocking heads, discovering just how different they are and wondering if there are enough commonalities to make up for that.
Valerio is a handsome, sweet guy and damn good in bed but he’s also very much of the mind that tradition matters and certain roles must be observed and ideas held; his conservatism, which thankfully isn’t toxic, just thoughtlessly rusted-on stands in stark contrast to Alessandra who was raised by staunchly independent single mum, who passionately campaigns for equality and passionate crushing of the patriarchy, and who is adamant she doesn’t someone to fill any traditional male roles in her life, even though Valerio clearly wants to.
It’s a fun, intellectual battle of the wills, which sparkles and pops with vivacious dialogue and a real thoughtfulness, but which also feels very human and grounded, the product not of two romcom cardboard cutout characters who are simply there to tick whatever boxes the genre demands of them, but two very real people who may have a huge amount of attraction but who are not about to give up themselves for it.
Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) isn’t content to leave them in their respective corners and part of the refreshing charm of the film is that both people change and have to meet in the people, a heartwarming and very real change to the usual romcom model where one person is great and the other has to play catch-up.
Here, as in real life – fancy injecting realness into a romcom but good lord it works, and works an absolute treat – they have to meet in the middle, grow and learn to accept the other, even if they still don’t exactly see eye-to-eye and likely never will, and find a way, if so inclined, to maybe, possibly, who knows, find a way to make this work in the long-term.
There’s vulnerability and comedy with verve in every scene in Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) which offers up all the swoon-worthy moments you could ask for while flawlessly leavening them out so the romance feels more rooted in real life than any this reviewer has seen in some time.
Alive with possibility, hope and love, but also a wry recognition that two wildly divergent people coming together is never going to be an easy ask, Separate Beds (2 cuori e 2 capanne) is an emphatic cut above the usual romcom fare, sporting buoyantly comedic moments, characters who are fun but grounded and a story and dialogue that cracks with warmth and verve and the possibility of some sort of unconventional happy ever after but not before everyone has learnt a lesson or two and realised that you can love on your own terms and it can work, traditional expectations and role be damned.