"Nowhere Special" by Uberto Pasolini (2022)

This was no brainer, no deliberate choosing - the moment I read about it, I knew I want to see it in cinema and share with friends - this time I have invited two of them and listened as they sniffed left and right of me. It was more about the subject - terminally ill single father is interviewing and auditioning childless families who are willing to adopt his little son - than about the names involved, since I was not terribly familiar with either director Uberto Pasolini nor the main actor James Norton. But the subject appealed to me and I thought, finally, a movie that is not about special effects and Marvel superheroes.

The best and the most amazing thing about the movie (besides acting, which was brilliant as expected in British movies) is how much restraint and finesse the director used to deal with potentially maudlin story that could have been sugary and sentimental, if not handled properly. Almost anybody you could think of, would milk sentimentality, children's tears, deliberately somber, symphonic music and every old trick in the book (I shudder how horrible it could have been if done in Hollywood) but Uberto Pasolini approaches it differently, clear-eyed and almost matter-of-factly - nowhere in the movie we hear what exactly James Norton is ill from or anything that might unbalance the story - we simply know that he is very sick and will die soon - we see it in his gaunt face, in his behaviour and worry what will happen to the little boy after he dies. That is why he relies on social services to put him in touch with potential foster parents who are unfortunately one more alarming than another. And the little boy is neither teary or artificial, he is simply a little boy who is too small to understand anything and his red balloon had just flied away. There are many beautiful moments of tenderness between them and everything is million times more poignant, since we understand that Norton purposely creates memories for his son, using what is left of the time to make him happy. Everything they do together - reading the children's book, grocery shopping, even just walking to a school together, are moments to treasure. For me this is masterpiece and ranks up there with the best of Mike Leigh movies.