Days and Clouds

By Mina Hochberg | amNewYork movie critic

1:51 PM EDT, July 10, 2008

Margherita Buy, Antonio Albanese in a scene from "Days and Clouds" Directed by by Silvio Soldini. (Film Movement)

The soul-crushing stresses of having to downgrade one's life by a couple of tax brackets is a theme that might ring all too true for some Americans these days: Selling off possessions -- a curio, a boat, a home -- that, previously, would have seemed inseparable from one's identity. Shame, despair, decline of self-worth. This is the kind of emotional terrain covered by the amiably calibrated, subtly scripted Italian film "Days and Clouds."

Elsa (Margherita Buy) is forced to abandon her budding art historian career to take on two menial jobs after her husband, Michele (Antonio Albanese), loses his long-time position to a sour turn of office politics. Hoping for the best, and not immune to pride, the formerly upper-middle class couple hides their financial problems from friends and even their grown-up daughter.

It sounds like grounds for a downer of a movie, but director Silvio Soldini doesn't wallow. Elsa and Michele are resilient. They have their messy spats as their economic situation worsens, but they manage to end most fights on a hopeful or at least commiserative note, allowing them to plod through trying days with their marriage impressively intact. In fact, they fight and make up so well, you begin to wonder if their pat plight is even worth a movie plot. You kind of wish Elsa and Michele would just get their downward spiral over with, instead of being such good co-dependents. But then, perhaps I've seen one too many French dramas. Not every marriage under duress needs to teeter on the brink.

Days and Clouds Directed by Silvio Soldini. Starring Margherita Buy, Antonio Albanese, Alba Rohrwacher