Lavazza Italian Film Festival Review: The Worst Week of My Life

The Worst Week of My Life, directed by Alessandro Genovesi, was a hit comedy in Italy – being based on a popular UK television sitcom of the same name helps – which I am sure will reap similar rewards at the Lavazza Italian Film Festival.

The premise is simple. Paolo (Fabio De Luigi) is a 40-year-old advertising agent who is a week shy of marrying his beautiful fiancé Margherita (Cristiana Capotondi). Their excitement for married life in not shared by Margherita’s eccentric upper class parents (Monica Guerritore and Antonio Catania) – and a visit to their lovely home sets in motion a week-long series of escalating disasters that not only severely dents their impression of him, but poses a challenge to the loving couple’s big day.

This often-hilarious slapstick comedy makes use of awkward humour in the vein of the familiar pre-wedding disaster/meet the parents’ mayhem. It’s pretty funny for a while – especially the first two days spent at Paolo’s future in-laws place – but the laughs do dry up significantly as the build-up of situations become increasingly implausible. This applies to what transpires, how they are resolved, and how much his wife-to-be forgives him. But, for pure escapist fun this delivers more than not.

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