It’s… well, not bad, Carmine was nice and sweet, but the ending is wrong, so wrong, I didn’t like it at all. To the end of this to learn exactly why, but come on, had they stopped sooner it would have been bittersweet, but at least it would have made a bit of sense and be quite the romantic ending, this way it is absurd.
Carmine lives in Napoli, and is quite proud of being close to local Boss Pasquale. Actually, Pasquale bares with him only because Carmine’s father saved his life once, losing his own.
He likes to think himself an important man, part of the gang, Pasquale’s right hand, but he’s not. When Pasquale tells him one of his friends stole from him, he wants to be part of the mission, he insists, so he goes. He waits outside to see if he tries to escape, and sure enough the guy does. Carmine follows him and stops him at gunpoint. The guy talks to him, they’ve been friends since they were children, and the guy also tells him that he didn’t really steal anything, he earned that money, and after a while Carmine lets him go, and confesses everything to Pasquale.
The boss has no intention of giving him another chance, he knows Carmine is not made for that, so instead he sends him to Rome. Pasquale bought a restaurant, it’s now in Carmine’s name, and it will be useful in washing their dirty money. Carmine does that, tries to act well and does what he’s told, hoping to go back home, but then one of Pasquale’s men tells him that he’ll never go back, that he had become a burden and Pasquale got rid of him.
A girl makes a scene inside the restaurant, complaining about the terrible food, and seems rather distraught by what the restaurant has become. He looks on the internet and finds her, the previous chef of the restaurant. She learned from someone important, but her food didn’t meet with the approval of the critics, and she closed in less than two years.
Carmine is intrigued and goes to eat where she works now (as a sous chef, or less). Delighted by the food, he makes her an offer, to come working for him and sort of get her restaurant back.
She accepts, but has conditions and is quite bossy… actually she’s very, very bossy. He uses his own money to buy a kitchen for 20.000 E., and still has to pay for all the work done inside, which is roughly the same amount, and also will have to pay the salary to her, the chef, but also to her team of seven people.
And he has told nothing to Pasquale. It’s just that if he has to stay here for long, he wants to do something and have fun…
The first night is a success, sure, but Carmine has to pay a lot of money he doesn’t have, so he takes some from the dirty stash. He pays everyone and they work hard, but the restaurant finds it difficult to be successful, and Consuelo is upset. He tells her they only need time, but she knows that it never mattered when she had it before, she says people don’t like her cooking, it had already been described as without soul, so she asks him questions about the only few dishes he can make and they talk of his grandma who used to feed all the kids, and she realises she never put any memories into her own dishes, she always escaped from her memories, so she adds something to the menu.
People at Napoli had noticed an inconsistency with the money and Carmine is in trouble now.
He takes time, and hopes for the best. He admits to Consuelo that he did it all for her, but denies any money problem when she tells him that as a high class restaurant the first two years will be difficult and only after that they’ll start seeing the money fly.
He’s rather desperate, so he accepts his friend Giuliano’s offer to go to Napoli and get his Margherita out of there, but he’s too late. Pasquale’s men get to Margherita and take him away, to lure Giuliano in or something. Giuliano is desperate, and while they talk Carmine admits what he did so Giuliano sends him the money he needs - Carmine refused to take the money so he sent them before going to Napoli. Carmine goes straight to the bank, more confident now that the numbers are alright.
A cop talks to Carmine, giving him the news that both Giuliano and Margherita were killed at 1am, and Carmine called Giuliano’s cell phone midmorning. Pasquale had his cell phone, so now Carmine knows he’s done for. Pasquale is coming to the restaurant that night so he closes it and opens only for them. He plans to cook himself, doesn’t want Consuelo involved, but when she learns that he’s cooking, she insists for doing it herself.
Pasquale actually loves the dinner that reminds of their past, the person they loved. Carmine loved him a a father once, but now he wants something for himself, something clean. Still, Pasquale hesitates in giving the order to kill Carmine, so his man whatshisname shoots him instead, Vincenzo who was also the one that killed Giuliano and Margherita.
Carmine had an agreement with the PM, there were microphones and the police arrived to arrest them all. Vincenzo tries to use Consuelo as hostage but when he shouts in her ear she knocks him down and is arrested.
Now Carmine has to go, he tells Consuelo everything and leaves her the restaurant while he goes away in protected custody and can’t have contacts anymore.
One year later Carmine is working for the same great chef that Consuelo told him about, the one in Denmark where she worked too. Consuelo comes to see him - how did she know he was there is not specified, of course, because it doesn’t make a lot of sense… none at all, actually. Not sure it makes sense that he’s there to begin with, but maybe under a false name… it’s quite the secluded place after all… but he has to be still in protected custody since there’s no way the trial is over, no way he’s no more in danger, after merely a year!
The cast :
Giuliano - Marlon Joubert
Jessica - Teresa Ferrari
Margherita - Giampiero de Concilio
Luca Villani - Stefano Sardo
I don’t know the protagonists’ names because Italians don’t add the cast to the ending credits and I have no idea who they are, who is who, but am not in the mood to google it. Can they ever do anything right, I wonder?!?
So I only added this few, these names are listed, the only characters I remember seeing in the film.
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