Kritiken

The pile-up of characterizations, melodramatic plot points, time jumps, and the prestigious, overqualified cast gives for some juicy narrative momentum, and Moretti himself approaches this material with absolute conviction.

One never become deeply invested in the characters, the tone is relatively monotonous and the lack of any mention of world events to frame matters keep everything rather one-dimensional. It’s a disappointing outing all around.

Madness in its various forms is a clear through-line running across all three of the film’s intermingling stories, but Moretti does not seem to know how to handle that sensitive subject without losing sight of what constitutes normal behavior and what does not.

The problem overall is that Moretti, despite his acting role and his credits as writer (along with Valia Santella and Federica Pontremoli) and director, seems unwilling to inject anything of himself into the film. It’s unusually po-faced, with hardly any humour.

With exaggerated performances... and pompous lines that just shouldn’t be uttered in any situation, however dramatic, one half-expects a fade-out and a “to be continued” teaser. But it just doesn’t come, not for two very long hours.

["Three Floors"] strives to be an Italian Woody Allen or Richard Curtis but doesn’t have the charm or the sharp dialogue, making it an unmemorable and generic drama-somewhat-comedy.

There is an element of emollient sentimentality, especially in the way the plot lines are neatly tied up, but a good deal of storytelling gusto and ingenuity... In some ways the film is not unlike one of Woody Allen’s mid-period straight dramas: delivered with conviction and force but not really much profundity. It can be overwrought and even absurd but lively and heartfelt.

“Three Floors” [is] a film clearly conceived to hit the same bittersweet notes as [Moretti's] 2001 triumph ["The Son's Room], but scarcely recognizable as the work of the same filmmaker. Dramatically stilted, cinematically drab and morally dubious at multiple turns, this soapy lather of assorted crises concerning the residents of a single Roman apartment block may come as a crashing disappointment to fans who have been waiting six years for a new Moretti feature.

"Three Floors" is, by any standard, one of [Moretti's] minor works. It will click mainly with hard-core fans, who will appreciate its recap of Morettian themes, tropes, locations and actors and its heavily underlined political correctness vis-à-vis women and immigrants... But for those looking for a film that attempts new narrative or technical adventures, the interwoven stories of three middle-class families living in a sprawling Roman condo are a disappointment.

Sad to report, ["Three Floors"] is one of the worst efforts in a great career... After such strong, personal pieces as “Dear Diary” and “Aprile,” Moretti has many admirers. This is his 13th feature film, although his first adapting another writer’s work — but something has been lost in the translation and in the lack of signature style. You might even say that “Three Floors” really doesn’t work on any level.

It’s all mildly involving, in a soapy way, and there are performances and moments to enjoy (and then to miss when they're under-developed), but thematically it’s muddy: you’re left with a hollow feeling that all the pain and recovery on display over this ten-year-period amounts to little in the way of ideas.