Feeling Better (Nonostante)

In Valerio Mastandrea’s Feeling Better, coma patients walk as unseen ghosts while their bodies remain in their hospital bed. One such patient is an unnamed man (played by Mastandrea) who loves the freedom this existence grants him. Without a care in the world, he spends his days roaming the hospital and talking to his fellow spectral residents. However, his routine is interrupted when a newcomer (Dolores Fonzi) is admitted to the ward. Although he’s initially displeased that she’s taking his room, the pair soon strike up a friendship that blossoms into something more. But with the inevitability of recovery or death certain to take them out of this limbo, they know that their relationship can’t last.

There are some fascinating ideas at play in this film. The call of death, for example, comes as a powerful gust of wind where patients must literally hold on to cling to life or else be swept away. It’s an inventive metaphor for the characters’ state of being which also serves as a demonstration of the playful personality the filmmaker brings to his second feature. Whether its Mastandrea channelling this gleeful energy in his own performance or seeing the patients find themselves at a medieval battle recreation, there’s an irresistible charm to this quirky flick.

The director balances the tragic circumstance with oddball humour to create some wonderfully bittersweet moments, with one of the standout sequences seeing Mastandrea and Fonzi having a romantic walk at the bottom of a swimming pool, all set to a beautiful song. And when the inevitable eventually does happen, the final stretch is executed with as much whimsical beauty as the rest of the film.

Despite everything Feeling Better does wonderfully well, it has one detrimental flaw: there’s not enough romance between the leads. Although the actors work well onscreen together, the actual romantic part of their connection doesn’t get underway until towards the last act. It’s possible that this was intended to make its outcome that much more heartbreaking, but without getting to spend time with them as their relationship develops, its hard to care about their love as much as they do.

Feeling Better is a unique and effortlessly endearing love story about two people on the cusp of death. It’s therefore unfortunate that there’s not enough time spent nurturing their romance before the film reaches its heartfelt conclusion.

Andrew Murray

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Watch a clip for Feeling Better (Nonostante) here: