The film's resolution is both haunting and satisfying.
60
VarietyRonnie Scheib
VarietyRonnie Scheib
Piles heavy emotional baggage on a slender story frame. Pic looks ravishing, featuring a nocturnal road trip through a cool kaleidoscopic landscape of shifting colors peopled by three commanding thesps of different generations whose interlocking stories form a cohesive whole.
Almost holding things together is the marvelous Ms. Elsner: there’s more depth in her weary gaze and disappointed mouth than in any line of dialogue. Not since Bette Davis lit and flicked has smoking been so evocative, or so heartbreaking.
50
New York PostV.A. Musetto
New York PostV.A. Musetto
You can't quarrel with the lensing and acting, but the overabundance of coincidences keeps Vivere from reaching its full potential.
The wave-like "Rashomon" structure of the story, combined with the steady pace and moody look of Vivere are lulling, but in the end the situation is neither believable nor fantastic enough to be very compelling.
40
Village Voice
Village Voice
I like writer-director Angela Maccarone's ambition, but her technical ingenuity exceeds her grasp of potentially complex emotions, which get stuck in a groove of mawkish self-pity.