La finestra di fronte 2003

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A movie to treasure. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: It's a corny and utterly implausible story in many ways -- but, like The Notebook, it's an implausible romance that connects with us because of the lush style and the power of the performances. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Probably best skipped -- unless you have a penchant for shallow, 'comfortable' foreign films that offer obvious messages and never attempt to challenge the viewer. Read more

Carla Meyer, San Francisco Chronicle: Poignant and carefully observed. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: The film's puzzlelike structure is a help; Simone's secret may not be hard to guess, but watching him work it out with the aid of Giovanna and Lorenzo consistently holds our interest. Read more

Richard Nilsen, Arizona Republic: There are two stories in Facing Windows, one of them profound and deeply moving, the other pure soap opera. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Beautiful to look at and acted with full and tempestuous conviction, it still seems to be taking place in an apartment far across the way. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: Thanks to a soulful performance by Giovanna Mezzogiorno, it's also eminently watchable, even as we resist its machinations. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: As the relationship progresses between Giovanna and Davide, Facing Windows becomes refined with deeper truths. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Fluidly directed, superbly acted, boasting a story that wraps itself snugly around big emotional issues but stops just short of sentimentality. Read more

Charles Ealy, Dallas Morning News: A quiet, lovely, thoughtful Italian movie. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: Structurally, it's ambitious, but emotionally the movie never quite connects. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: It's Girotti, a now-deceased veteran of classic films by such great directors as Roberto Rosselini and Luchino Visconti, whose polished restraint and leathery dignity lends authoritative heft to the movie's self-help bromides. Read more

Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger: Essentially, it is a love story, but it's one that both cynics and romantics can embrace. Read more

Jack Mathews, New York Daily News: It's a potent tale, wonderfully acted by Mezzogiorno and Massimo Girotti as the old man. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: This lush, surreally flavored immersion in voyeurism and romantic dreams muses on many of the same themes as Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window and Vertigo. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: In a strange way, Facing Windows harks back to the glorious dawn of Italian Neorealism 60 years ago. And yet it is luminously contemporary in its rediscovery of a long-buried past, both personal and historical. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: The characters are compelling enough to make it worth plowing through the subtitles. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Ozpetek ends up with a lot of balls in the air, and he has to do some scrambling to keep up. He pulls it off, but it feels like he's making this harder than it needs to be. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: It's ultimately as soft and hollow as fresh-baked Italian bread. Read more

Time Out: Read more

Deborah Young, Variety: Though the film's multiple strands strain to blend, they do give the protags' ill-fated romance a level of deeper, more involving meaning. Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Blends past and present to draw some utterly stupefying parallels. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: It's Italian, it's actually quite mesmerizing in the manner of '50s psychological melodrama held together by incredible coincidences, everyone in it is splendidly attractive, and when you get out, you will be thinking: 'I have to get a pie soon.' Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: This glossy veneer of artificiality, handled masterfully in the films of Douglas Sirk, Todd Haynes and Pedro Almodovar, doesn't feel classic here so much as cheesy. Read more