The Double Hour movie

Sonia (Ksenia Rappoport) recently emigrated from Slovenia to Turin. She wants to find a boyfriend and so joins a speed dating service where she meets Guido (Filippo Timi), a former policeman turned high-end security guard. A standoffish pair at first, Guido notices that the hour and minute indicators on the clock are all on the same number (as in 2:22 or 5:55), and when Sonia agrees this is good luck, sparks fly. Nothing after that is as it seems in debuting director Giuseppe Capotondi's captivating romantic mystery The Double Hour. This is not the sort of movie that Hollywood adapts for English speaking audiences if for no better reason the film relies so heavily on plotting that can't be tampered with. (American studios need room to tamper and there is no room here.) Foreign language film fans will surely have this Italian gem on their to-see lists. Decent box office for distributor Samuel Goldwyn is likely with healthy ancillaries to follow.

Guido takes Sonia for a romantic weekend at one of the estates for which he provides security. A home invasion ensues and turns tragic. The question is, what exactly was the nature of those events? As a police investigator looks into the report, and into Sonia's past, the questions surrounding the robbery become more pointed and the answers less clear. What exactly happened? To whom did it happen? What was/is real, and what is not? To say much more about a movie that depends so heavily on mystery would do both the filmmakers and filmgoers a grave injustice. Suffice it to say that the twists and turns in The Double Hour are not arbitrary; rather, they are well considered and effective, right down to the last frame. Rappoport and Timi carry the film's oblique tone, saying as much through their silences as their dialogue.

For Giuseppe Capotondi this is a conspicuous and noteworthy debut.

Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Cast: Kseniya Rappoport and Filippo Timi
Director: Giuseppe Capotondi
Screenwriter: Alessandro Fabbri, Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo
Producers: Francesca Cima and Nicola Giuliano
Genre: Romantic Thriller; Italian- and Spanish-languages, subtitled
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 95 min.
Release date: April 15 NY