MELODY NIXON soaks in the afterglow of a generous romantic comedy at the Italian Film Festival.

Il Mio Meglior Nemico, or My Best Enemy is standard, polished fare for the Italian Film Festival. Humorous, romantic blockbusters with gorgeous women and happy endings have proven a reliable opener for the festival in past years and 2007’s offering is no exception. This is Italian romantic comedy at its most tweaked and rambunctious. In continuation with cultural tradition it is also comedy as Dante Alighieri himself described it: ‘beginning with adverse circumstances, but with a happy termination’.

Two men – one wealthy and one poor – are tossed into battle when the poor man’s mother is fired from her job in a hotel. The men duel throughout a Roman cityscape rich with scooters, affairs, and caffè. Unaware they are in fact in battle for the same thing – real love and happiness – the men inadvertently lead each other to safety, and find fresh meaning in their lives. All this comes via a sturdy core of homoerotic jokes, sex, and many many accidents.

The story has as its subject the gorgeous, wealthy and compassionate Cecilia – the wayward daughter of the rich man. Cecilia looks to the downtrodden but attractive poor man Orfeo (Silvio Muccino) as her saviour, telling him: “I need… someone to tell me what to do”. At this Orfeo doesn’t require much prompting and with Cecilia’s father Archille (Carlo Verdone), he sets out on a search to help Cecilia to find herself. Happily, he manages to find himself and his own father along the way.

This is love apparently through an Italian lens and it is sensual, gutsy and at times moving. The character portrayals rely heavily on stereotyping however, and women characters are polarized into psycho and sluttish, or divine. But the film has never set out to stray from gender roles and its light-hearted approach to idealizing young love while treading on the toes of fidelity provides escapism which is worthwhile for its fun and vibrancy, if not for its depth.

My Best Enemy ties together some neat themes, such as the lovely old adage that in losing everything you can gain more than what you had, and generally the film provides a good, solid romanticisation of Italy and life in general. In its high points My Best Enemy is cute and comical, and should appeal to a broad range of film and Italy lovers.

My Best Enemy screens at the 12th Cathay Pacific Italian Film Festival nationwide.