The premise: A happily married couple, Luca (Flavio Furno) and Sara (Marta Gastini), decide to host a dinner party. As they gather and set the table, they argue good-naturedly for and against the existence of soul mates. As Luca pours more wine into his friends’ glasses, to justify his case he begins to tell them a story that happened the year before.
Luca tells them about a previous gathering at their home in which he and Sara had invited four other single friends, Giulia (Matilde Gioli), Dario (Giuseppe Maggio), Matteo (Matteo Martari), and Chiara (Ilenia Pastorelli), with the good intentions of setting up suitable matches between the four.
At this point in the story, the scene cuts to the luncheon that occurred the year before. We see the single friends, Dario and Giulia caught in a flirtation while Matteo and Chiara exchange numbers willingly. It seems the married couple have done their work well and they have indeed found perfect love mates for their four single friends.
But, before the couples get too far down the dating path and things become too serious, the film takes an interesting twist. The viewer is taken back to the day when the singles first meet, and because of a series of incidences and misadventures that prevent the original partners from going out on their first dates, the men and women pair up differently.
As the movie continues, we follow the couples through two parallel existences, and we see how the lives of these four individuals play out when they are paired differently.
I enjoyed the film, especially the performance by actress Matilde Gioli. She was entirely captivating and brought a unique energy to Giulia’s multi-faceted character in the movie. She beautifully captured the various nuances of a woman’s personality through lively banter, nervous laughter, bold statements, tentative gestures, and confident smiles. It was entertaining to watch her transformations when paired with the two male characters throughout the movie.
At the end of the film, we aren’t given a definitive answer to which couples end up together. It is up to the viewer ultimately to decide. Or perhaps it is the director’s way of giving us a “THUNK” on the head to say, “really, people — there are no perfect soul partners out there for any of us.” Instead, we can find love and happiness based on circumstances, timing, longitude, and latitude. And if we have the fortitude and commitment to make a relationship work, we can probably make it work with many individuals out there in this big wide world we roam!
However, for Guilia’s character, I certainly have my preference regarding the man or soul partner I hope she ends up with! Always the romantic — that’s me! Watch the film and let me know if you, too, have a preferred choice for her!
You can read this post in Italian on the StudentessaMatta.com website. Practice vocabulary found in the post by following links to the interactive Matta Quizlet Site. 4 Metà (Four to Dinner): Netflix Italian Film.
Interested in traveling to Italy and learning Italian in a small group immersion program? Join Melissa in Lucca in Tuscany and in Ascoli Piceno in le Marche this fall. Visit the www.StudentessaMatta.com site to sign up and for more details.
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