Facing Windows

There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of three movies to be found in this visually impressive and sometimes heavy-handed film from director Ferzan Ozpetek. It’s principally about a woman, Giovanna (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), and her struggles to either accept her current marital status and vocation, or quit her job and start a love affair with a man in the apartment building across the street. To make this more than just a story about forbidden love and self discovery, Ozpetek (who also cowrote the screenplay) includes a substantial subplot involving an amnesiac elderly man Giovanna finds wandering the streets and the eventual revelation of his backstory. It’s a bit too much for one cohesive film, but Ozpetek makes a good-looking movie, and the performances, especially Mezzogiorno’s, are good.