David Jachia (Jacopo Bonvinici) is a student at
the University of Pisa, during the summer of 2001,
a month or so before the G8 meeting in Genoa.
He has only one more exam to go before he graduates
with a prestigious degree that should open all sorts of
doors. But his life is about to take an unexpected turn.
Noticing the beautiful Viola (Violante Placido)
handing out fliers for a anti-globalisation meeting
David decides to go along. He's long had a thing for
the girl, since they met briefly three years ago,
though she probably doesn't remember him, and her
significant other Luca (Edoardo Gabbrielini) seems
to be the ideological leader of the movement - to the
extent that this group of green/red/black/pinkos will
consent to having such.
At the meeting, David finds himself suggesting a name
for the movement and, after they go to set up a
squat-cum-commune, writing their press release. He's
forgotten all about his exam, but the others make him
feel part of something meaningful in a way that
physics rarely did.
The police inevitably show up, but the destruction of
the commune only galvanises David's
commitment - that plus the fact that Viola is taking
an interest in him, much to Luca's chagrin.
After an altercation with a junkie, hanging round the
second commune, which leads to Luca's (rather too
schematic) departure, David finds himself responsible
for masterminding the trip to G8. The only problem is
that it's the same day as his rescheduled exam...
Opening in media res with the destruction of the original
commune and then backtracking to show David's place
within the story, Now Or Never is an assured piece of
work, with credible characters and a solid grounding in
a particular time and place.
The film has its flaws, however. Luca's reference to wanting to
avoid a Jules Et Jim scenario - pleading to the
arthouse gallery - is one and the seemingly interminable
series of endings, coupled with the failure to
discuss the impact of September 11th on David's thinking,
another.
But these are relatively minor issues when, elsewhere,
personal and political concerns are successfully
integrated and points are scored - the group hang a banner
from the Leaning Tower that reads "The tower is straight,
the world is crooked" - without succumbing to didacticism.
Merely by eschewing that tired old Bertolucci
nostalgia for an age that never existed, May '68 and
all that, Now Or Never is all the more to be welcomed
as a film that actually seeks to connect with the
realities for the present generation, rather than their
Baby Boomer parents.
