Quiet Chaos

It's been a long while since I have seen an Italian movie, so I was happy to catch Caos calmo (2008) (Quiet Chaos) at Theatre Clwyd this evening.
It is a strange but interesting portrayal of a grief reaction. Pietro ( the bassett hound faced Nanni Moretti) is widowed after is wife dies in a freak fall. Unable to face his emotions, he camps in front of his daughter's primary school every day, waiting for her to finish her studies. As he sits, he comes into contact with locals, family and work colleagues, all of whom seem to have huge problems of their own.
Quiet Chaos, unlike its Hollywood counterparts doesn't have the climatic catharsis of say Ordinary People, it just plods along until a sort of closure is obtained for a man whose relationship was not quite what it at first seemed. Moretti has a certain charm as the quietly anguished husband and Alessandro Gassman is equally impressive as his fey younger brother, but the film itself bounces a little too much from whimsey (the sweet relationship between father and daughter) and shock( a very uncomfortable and gratuitious sex scene between Moretti and a women he saves from drowning!) for my liking!
An ok 7/10