Vanilla sky - 2001

Too long, too damn long! Two hours, when 90 minutes would have been enough. They should have cut here and there those long long scenes, like the one at the pub (bar-discobar-whatever). It was so long, I thought it would never end. People dancing, loud music, and: David shouting, David drinking, David dancing or generally walking Giano-style, with the mask on the back of his head. There were other scenes too long or useless, they made it rather boring.
The story: David (Tom Cruise) has everything he wants, and is used to having it all. He has a big company, lots of money, whatever he wants. He doesn't have a girlfriend, but instead he has a friend-with-benefits, as they say: Julie Giani -they've said this name thousands of times: Julie Giani, Julie Giani, ok I get it - (Cameron Diaz). Speaking to his friend Brian (Jason Lee) he very casually talks about her in these terms. At his birthday party he does not invite Julie at all ! Instead he steals Brian's love-interest Sofia (Penelope Cruz). He tells Sofia 'help me, that girl is stalking me', but when Sofia looks at her she doesn't see a criminal, she sees a sad sad woman, she says she's "the saddest girl to ever hold a martini", but David doesn't care at all, doesn''t bother to stop to think about it, God forbid the spotlight should move from him to someone else! So he doesn't care and instead spends time with Sofia; he walks her home and goes in with her. They spend the whole night together, talking, joking, watching tv, they're slowly falling in love, he is completely charmed by her. Morning comes, he moves to go back home, but outside he meets Julie. She confesses to having followed him, of being afraid she might lose him. He doesn't care, he keeps smiling in a sort of king-of-the-world-style. David even admits he feels something for Sofia, and tells her that as a friend she should understand! Unbelievable.  Julie asks him to get in her car, to have a chat and make peace, and he does. She starts talking about them, about when they made love, about how he talks about her, she tells him it's so hard to pretend to be a friend because she loves him (which was so obvious) and she starts driving very fast. Now David is scared, but she doesn't slow down. She keeps talking and then she runs her car down a bridge. She dies, he falls into a coma. Because of the coma the doctors can't operate on him and he's now horribly disfigured. He's hurting and depressed and angry, he closes everyone out. Eventually he finds the heart to meet Sofia again, and asks her for a date. She agrees but asks Brian to be present. Understandable, it's a bit heavy on her considering she did see him only once. The doctors gave David a latex mask to help the face regenerate, and he wears the mask to meet them in the bar. He gets angry when Brian asks him to loose the mask, but then he takes it off. He spends a lot of time drinking and watching Sofia. When they go out, he's obnoxiously drunk and Sofia only wants to run home. David fights with Brian, then he falls asleep on the sidewalk.
This is all true, it really happened. From now on things get complicated. What we see happening: Sofia wakes him up, takes him home and they start a relationship; some time later his face turns back to normal, and the two of them are happy together, until one day he turns round and sees Julie. We see David talking to a psychologist, in prison. We learn he's accused of killing Sofia. He's remembering what happened. He's more and more confused, and apparently he killed Sofia because he saw Julie in her. Slowly he remembers the truth, that he signed a contract with the LE company, Life Extension, then he killed himself and they froze him. Once frozen, he started the 'lucid dream option' he signed for. He has been dreaming ever since. What really happened is: he woke up from that sidewalk and went home alone. He never met Sofia again. He started working seriously, but the pain was too much and he missed Sofia too much he couldn't take it anymore, and signed the contract. Apparently 150 years have passed while he was sleeping. Now it's his choice: he can go on dreaming what he wants, controlling his dreams, or they can wake him up, alive again. He chooses to stop dreaming.
Nice idea, but too boring, too long, and honestly he wasn't a sympathetic character.

Genova - 2008

Also called "A summer in Genoa", is one of those films difficult to describe or define. First, you will read everywhere "starring Colin Firth" but actually the real protagonists are 1.the city of Genova, 2.the two young girls, 3.their father, played by Firth. It's a very bitter story, because this family is coming out of a terrible tragedy. The younger daughter Mary caused a car accident that killed her mother. Trying to move on, their father Joe accepts a teaching job in Italy. He tries to be as close as possible to his daughters, but all the hugs are not enough to cure them from such pain. Mary feels responsible (well, she is, but she's very young, she didn't want to of course, she just didn't realize how dangerous it could be to cover the driver's eyes while she was driving....), she acts normal during the day but secretly sees her mother from time to time and she cries and screams every night because of the pain. Kelly (not-so-secretly blaming Mary for ruining her life) is a teenager, so she doesn't cry or scream, she acts tough and rebel, and lies to her father not telling him that while Mary is taking piano lessons she goes outside to meet with a boy she just met there. With him she goes to the beach, to pubs, or back to the empty house for sex.
The lovely bit for me was how real Genova is in this film, the true Genova, its very own carruggi, those little roads in the old town center, even Joe's university is a true university.  Only thing is, the Italian women didn't "feel" Italian at all, and nobody seemed at all concerned that these two young girls walked alone these roads at all hours, I mean, some of them yes, but some others I would never walk there alone on a hot summer day or night, as if it was the safest thing to do.
Anyway, nothing happens to them, good. That is, until the day Joe accepts a date with a student and Kelly leaves as usual to go to the beach. When her 'boyfriend' refuses to leave to take her back, she misses the appointment to pick up her sister. Mary can't wait inside the house because the family of her teacher has to leave and can't miss the flight (but his wife calls Mary's father to warn him). Fortunately Kelly is given a ride back by a friend met on the way, and Joe is contacted by a colleague giving him the news that Mary's on her own. They both rush back. Mary is wandering, following the image of her dead mother, reaching a bigger street and crossing it without thinking (but young kids know nothing about roads and cars in America??), and causing another car accident. Fortunately a minor one, but it happened because she jumped in the middle of the road and a car managed to not run her over.
It's at this point that her family catches up with her. They hug and Kelly apologizes.
The last scene shows the two girls starting the new school in Genova (must be one of those schools in English).
The end, just that.