Maria Sole Tognazzi's Italian dramedy is two star offering, but has some escapist appeal.Margherita Buy stars in ‘A Five Star Live.’
You won't find much heft in Maria Sole Tognazzi's Italian dramedy, but it'll make for a decent mini-vacation if you could use a brief escape.
Oddly, though, Tognazzi seems ambivalent about her movie's greatest asset: the extraordinary luxury hotels that serve as her settings. Her fortysomething heroine, Irene (Margherita Buy), is a professional mystery guest, hired to find flaws in five-star accommodations around the world.
But instead of reveling in Irene's cool job, or imagining some interesting challenges facing a constant traveler, Tognazzi and her cowriters repeatedly fall back on the oldest of clichés: Irene spends most of the movie being reminded of and defending her status as a single businesswoman.
Buy is wonderful, and it's a delight to get to peek into all the stunning international resorts she visits.
It's just too bad no one else around her - including the filmmakers -is able to relax and enjoy her ride.
