To watch A Summer in Genoa (2008) is to understand why Colin Firth was ideally cast in his Oscar-winning role as George VI in The King's Speech. He plays Joe, a British expatriate professor in Chicago whose wife (Hope Davis) is killed in a car accident. Emotionally buttoned up and nursing his pain with no show of complaint, Joe decides to take his daughters, the self-centered teenager Kelly and the prepubescent Mary, on a teaching-getaway to Genoa. Perhaps a change of scenery might do everyone some good?
Directed by Britain's Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, A Mighty Heart), A Summer in Genoa is a closely observed study of grief, family and friendship. Catherine Keener plays an associate at the Genoese college, a not-quite-old-flame from their university days who harbors certain longings. Kelly runs around with a local boy and her dead mother often visits Mary. Winterbottom paces the story with a great sense of slightly offbeat rhythm, handling the emotional roiling of his characters with respect and sympathy. A Summer in Genoa will be out on DVD on April 12.
