Review: A master sensualist returns with an alluring star and not much else in ‘Parthenope’
LA TimesA softer Paolo Sorrentino is still a fertile imagemaker. That means a willing viewer can coast through much of the Italian writer-director’s new film, “Parthenope,” on an enigmatic bliss-out of Neapolitan beauty and languid charm. A devoted reader and ambitious student, she revels in the depressive stories of John Cheever, who even makes a guest appearance as a tourist-ing acquaintance, giving gin-soaked pontifications on youth’s transience. The academic career she craves, however, doesn’t stop her from exploring what’s out there, and Sorrentino’s menu of experiences for her covers a lot of thematic ground: a mysterious encounter with a disfigured acting guru, a night picnic with a wealthy admirer who hovers in a helicopter, an affair with a folk hero who connects her to the city’s poor masses, a personal tragedy that reminds her of life’s fragility. But without a character that we feel connected to, even Parthenope’s great beauty, meant to suggest Naples itself, qualifies as an overburdened resource.
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