Critics reviews

As played by the charming Toni Servillo, whose ability to project serene detachment is especially effective, Sallus carries the moral force that hovers over the summit and sustains the film's air of metaphysical something-or-other, but the secrecy that binds him also lets the movie off the hook, allowing its moral agenda to remain both vague and predictable.

Early in The Confessions a spectacular drone shot follows a moving car from above the treetops. Eventually the car arrives at a driveway crowded with news photographers, and the camera leaves it to reveal a huge modern hotel and then move beyond it over ta body of water. Though not as flashy, the rest of the film has the sort of lush cinematography (above) and rich musical score that are familiar from such other recent prestigious Italian productions as The Great Beauty.

It's a philosophical thriller in which characters contemplate the meaning of time or the concept of creative destruction in international relations. By giving it the aspect of a more traditional whodunit, Andò makes his story enjoyable by the general audience, as his elegant mise en scène and voluntarily classical composition — often perfectly geometrical, with intimate closeups on faces, bolstered by Nicola Piovani's graceful score — makes the narration instantly readable.