Three Floors

Directed by Nanni Moretti, Three Floors details the trials and tribulations of several characters, including Alba Rohrwacher’s Monica and Moretti’s Vittorio, that all live within the same apartment complex. Filmmaker Moretti, working from a script written with Federica Pontremoli and Valia Santelli, delivers an often astonishingly deliberate drama that nevertheless remains watchable for the duration of its (overlong) running time, as the movie boasts agreeable performances and a growing emphasis on appreciatively (and irresistibly) melodramatic happenings and digressions – with the soap-opera-like exploits of the various protagonists generally compensating for a narrative that feels oddly padded-out from start to finish. And although the incredibly slow atmosphere remains an issue throughout, particularly in terms of mustering up the rapt enthusiasm for the different storylines Moretti has obviously intended, Three Floors ultimately comes off as a decent-enough endeavor that could only have been improved had it run a full half hour shorter.

**1/2 out of ****