BIANCO E NERO (BLACK AND WHITE) (2008)

Unfortunately, the plot climaxes after about an hour (after having an affair, a white man named CARLO and a black woman named NADINE become a couple). Script writers Cristina Comencini (also the director), Giulia Calenda and Maddalena Ravagli fill the next 35 minutes with unnecessary conflicts that lead to the protagonists breaking up and going back to their spouses. They eventually get back together... but the movie lazily ends without an explanation of how they're going to make it work. Actually, the fact that they kiss in public and in front of their children implies that they'll leave their spouses instead of having another affair. Yes, I said "implies." That's not the right way to handle such a subject. You know a good way to tell a drama and a melodrama apart? When it feels like a serious scene starts to unnecessary pile on things. For example, the scene where NADINE discovers that her daughter stole CARLO's daughter's doll. It's painful to watch, and not in the way it was intended. There's another scene I want to highlight, but not for being melodramatic. ELENA and BERTRAND (the spouses) are about to hook up. Not only was it that perfect combination of predictable and yet far-fetched, but their body language is unintentionally funny.