I'm the first to admit, when talking about streaming services, Netflix seems more focused on quantity than it is quality. You can never complain Netflix has a tiny library, but watching a new film on this platform is a gamble. So I'm happy to say I took a gamble on the Italian crime thriller Adagio recently, and it paid off well. Adagio was released in Italy late last year, but it was just released in the U.S. through Netflix on May 13th. (And yes, this film is spoken entirely in Italian.)
A trio of obsessed detectives track down a teenage boy after a tense surveillance mission goes wrong. But with some connections to retired underground gangsters, the teenage boy runs to old family friends looking for protection while the detectives gradually narrow their search. This film was shot on location in the streets and apartments of Rome during the relentless heat of summer, but it's surprisingly devoid of sex appeal. (You won't find any women in skimpy swimsuits or closeups of sweaty skin.) With temporary blackouts hitting the city and a distant wildfire approaching, Rome has an ominous (almost mournful) look, hinting at inevitable tragedy.
Adagio is a patient neo-noir film without the expected gun fights, car chases, or mysterious women. This film is too thoughtful and too quiet for that, because it spends its time creating four human portraits of different men each with cloudy criminal pasts (or a dangerously criminal present). The dialogue has such a natural leeriness that nothing feels forced. Conversations are long but laconic, the men are masculine but afraid.
Like any great mystery, important information is given intermittently as the story progresses, and that keeps viewers fully interested. That and the captivating performances of Pierfrancesco Favino (The Traitor, 2019) and Adriano Giannini (Bang Bang Baby, 2022 - ) playing opposites balancing stoic regret with desperate sensitivity. Italian director and co-writer Stefano Sollima is mainly known for the violent, action-heavy, crime films Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018) and Without Remorse (2021). Adagio is still in this director's comfort zone of mobsters and cops, but its unexpectedly emotional and complex story explores the tenuous paradoxes of the guilty and innocent, the living and the dead, and fathers and sons.
I wasn't watching this film with a racing heart or my hand clutched to my armrest. But I was surely watching thoroughly to find out what happens next.
