The Price of Family: The Price of Family, also known as Natale a tutti I costi in Italian, is a sad but ultimately uplifting story about an empty-nester mother. It was directed by Giovanni Bognetti. It might also be argued that this movie qualifies as a latecomer to the Christmas movie genre because the entire narrative takes place during the joyous holiday season.
The film’s December 19th release date was pushed up. Alessandra and Emilio are seen leaving the house they lived with their parents, Anna and Carlo, in the movie’s opening scene. The Price of Family Review will be thoroughly covered in this essay. Read on to learn more.
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Plot summary of The Price of Family
Emilio and Alessandra, Carlo and Anna’s son and daughter, are packing up their belongings and preparing to go to the city as Carlo and Anna say goodbye. Anna begs them to come back as frequently as they can because she is sorry to see them go. To Anna’s displeasure, Emilio and Alessandra had scarcely visited in the past 15 months. Carlo makes explanations for his kids and attempts to console his wife, but he knows it is futile.
Alessandra is supposed to come see Anna for her birthday, so Anna makes a whole lunch and a cake for her. However, when neither of her kids show up, Anna is very sad. They stop by Alessandra’s flat on the way to the city to meet Emilio for a drink. When they call her, they witness her pick up the phone hesitantly and tell them she won’t be spending Christmas with them. They see her standing outside.
They go to the pub after hearing this devastating news, where they run with Emilio and his boss, who continuously insults him. Emilio explains that he has accepted an invitation to travel overseas and won’t be around for Christmas as well. Carlo tries his best to comfort Anna as she expresses her tremendous sadness over the fact that neither of her children would be spending Christmas with her. Alessandra and Emilio start to worry when they don’t hear from their parents for a few weeks.
When they phone their grandmother, she informs them that Anna and Carlo must be quite busy because they recently got a sizable sum of money from their recently dead Aunt Tea. Soon after, Alessandra and Emilio visit their parents. After a wonderful meal, their parents inform them that they have received a total of 6 million from Aunt Tea. The kids are excited about this, although they try not to show it.
Long after the children had left, Anna and Carlo admit that the inheritance was all a fiction, but it turns out that their assumption that the children would return if there was money involved was correct. In order to keep up the appearance of wealth till Christmas, Carlo claims to know how to act affluent. While Carlo and Anna shop at flea markets to discover the greatest knockoffs they can find, Alessandra and Emilio celebrate money that hasn’t even arrived in their hands yet.
Carlo even borrows a Ferrari from a nearby impound until Christmas. To the dismay of Alessandra and Emilio, they frequently brag about their alleged fortune in front of their kids but never have any intention of giving them a portion. Furthermore, when word of this purported inheritance spreads like wildfire, further issues arise.
The Price Of Family Review
The main problem with the film is how out-of-date and obsolete all of its depictions of the current feel. Seeing parents con their adult children into staying at home is upsetting. The children, on the other hand, are both entirely peaches and completely unaware of the emotions of their parents. True, Carlo and Anna are the definition of “controlling parents,” and the story’s development unmistakably shows why the kids want to go away.
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It is immediately apparent from the start of the movie that the family scenes were meant to be comic, but viewers will find them awkward & challenging to watch. Sit and wait, expecting to hear laughter shortly, but it never does. As you wait for this to all to end, there is an unsettling stillness. It’s odd, but the movie lags a little bit even at 90 minutes. Critique Films are depressing by Christian De Sica and Angela Finocchiaro.
The parents’ obstinacy in sticking to the lie and their ease in coercing their kids into jeopardising their futures in order to fulfil their fantasies of having a good time upset me more than the lie itself. The fact that Anna struggles to let go of the umbilical cord is intriguing, but she is relying on her daughter Alessandra to help her realise her goal of having grandchildren.
The son will not be held to these standards, of course. The writing in The Price of Family is so clichéd & dismal that you won’t laugh at it, and its 18th-century perspective will make you feel sick. The disgusting manipulation only helps to incite rage and contaminate the environment by trying to tease us with such absurd and, to be quite honest, horrible circumstances.
That’s the ultimate knife in the back when everything is resolved too swiftly. Christmas is a season of forgiving even the biggest wrongdoings because, well, it’s Christmas. There is no turning point or moment of redemption. In the end, it is the law.
