Noi, un po’ meglio (You, Me, Us) is not the type of film you go into with high expectations – it’s a Netflix original for starters, and usually these dramedies do not bode well considering the amount of unsuccessful ones there have been. Somewhere along the way however, I realised I was actually, really, into it – not in a sitting-on-the-edge-of-my-seat way, but enough to warrant a genuine investment in its characters. And a lot of this success comes down to how natural it all feels.
Daniele Luchetti directs this fairly simple tale of couple Simone (Elio Germano) and Lucia (Maria Chiara Giannetta) who love each other but have completely different ideas about what their future should look like. When Lucia agrees, hesitantly, to pursue adoption, all these differences begin to come to the surface. What initially seems like a straightforward story about a couple trying to build a family gradually becomes a story about the compromises that come with sharing a life with someone, and the supposed “imperfection” of relationships and love.
At no point does Noi, un po’ meglio’s dialogue feel written by someone desperately trying to make every sentence meaningful or funny – it simply is, as are its characters, real people with real flaws and contradictions. There is something refreshing about watching people who aren’t constantly delivering perfectly constructed speeches about their feelings. In this respect, it isn’t a particularly exciting movie in the traditional sense. There are no twists or dramatic revelations, and its plot is easily summarised in a couple of sentences. Yet it is clear there is a lot more going on beneath the surface. A small disagreement becomes interesting not because of what the couple is arguing about, but because of everything that disagreement represents, a feat difficult to accomplish. There is something to be said about a film that captures the attention without constantly demanding it.
That being said, Luchetti’s film is in no ways innovative, and there are certainly moments when it feels a little too comfortable with its own simplicity. Being realistic doesn’t automatically make something interesting, and there are times when the characters or ideas at stake could have been pushed a little further. It certainly isn’t a film that will fundamentally change the way we think about relationships, but if anything, it’s something to watch if you don’t feel like committing to anything too intense. A surprisingly nice little film that doesn’t reinvent the genre or try to convince its audience it’s more important than it is – sometimes, that’s more than enough.
Noi, un po’ meglio (You, Me, Us) is now on Netflix.
