nmegahey To put it unkindly, The Solitude of Prime Numbers is like a feature version of The Undatables. It's based around a boy and a girl who are drawn together through their common status of socially awkward outsiders, but who are so messed up that their encounters are painful and the chances of them actually ever getting together seem very slim.Mattea is super-intelligent but moody, withdrawn and uncommunicative with his parents and friends. As a young boy he was close to his mentally disabled sister Michela and looked after her, calming her during her 'episodes' As a young man, Michela is no longer there, and there is clearly an experience in their childhood to be revealed that that has marked Mattea and left their mark on him in the form of self-harming.Alice also has visible scars. She walks with a limp and is bullied by the other girls, who call her a gimp. One of the girls, Viola, becomes her friend however and encourages her to pursue her attraction to the sullen Mattea by inviting him to a party. Her family life however has also been troubled, with a pushy father and an unstable mother. Neither Mattea nor Alice fit in with the world around them and suffer at the hands and from the taunts of others, but it's nothing to the suffering and the pain that they inflict upon themselves over incidents in their childhood.In terms of storyline it's as straightforward as that, but the structure of the film split into different time zones for both Mattea and Alice does complicate matters. Or not so much complicate as attempt to create a non-linear impression of a fractured mindset. It's a fractured past however that nonetheless shares echoes and correspondences between them, between past and present, between two people each trapped in their own worlds and in their pasts.There are moments when you feel that some kind of escape or redemption might be within their grasp, where they might make a connection that could help them to face up to the past and escape from what the might become, but the traps of the mind keep preventing them from getting past the past. There are moments of melodrama and intensity, but good performances from Alba Rohrwacher and Luca Marinelli give a human face to the weight of torment that some people have to endure all their lives.

Raymond Watched this on mubi. One of the better european dramas I've seen lately, altho it's not that new anymore. There doesn't seem to be too many popping up lately, in my opinion.The movie apparently is based on a book and also scripted by the author. I haven't read the book, so I don't know how the movie compares.Story follows a girl and a boy, later woman and a man, through years from about 8 years old to 30 something. Mostly concentrating on childhood. The script is non-linear so things don't always go as expected and can be a bit confusing.For some time we follow a lonely - but very much adored - young girl at a ski resort. At another storyline we have a smart boy of same age and his mentally challenged sister of also same age. In between we have extracts of seemingly same kids at their teens where their stories connect. A lot and probably dramatic things seem to have happened tho, since the kids are not exactly happy in their teens anymore, if they ever were.The boy is easy to follow as there is just one of them, but for a good while I mixed up three girls, partly because they look quite different at different ages, but also because they act quite differently and as the movie is non-linear, a lot has happened that we don't yet know. I'm not sure if this was deliberately done, but it confused the hell out of me.The movie eventually reveals events from both the girls and boys lives which have dramatically affected them. In this regard the story is very strong and gripping, sometimes very hard to watch as a parent myself.The prime numbers part is an interesting thought. It doesn't add much to the movie tho, other than a nice title and an intriguing analogy.

ricabailey I haven't read book but was attracted by title. First 30 mins was good. Such promise. Sadly after that it was a complete waste of time. Rather than spend time writing a further review I can say Mendhak's review perfectly sums it up: "a jumble of time-lines and a storyline filled with teenage angst and pointless drama. It is also full of needlessly prolonged scenes that make no sense, but which you can feel the director congratulated himself over. Also, this movie has nothing to do with prime numbers. Prime numbers may have been mentioned in one or two sentences in the movie, but were never the focus. I wonder if there was a better reason in the book for using the words 'prime numbers'. " Don't waste your time on it...even the cinematography descended into rubbish after first 30 mins....

mendhak Having never read the book, the movie appears to be a jumble of time-lines and a storyline filled with teenage angst and pointless drama. It is also full of needlessly prolonged scenes that make no sense, but which you can feel the director congratulated himself over. Also, this movie has nothing to do with prime numbers. Prime numbers may have been mentioned in one or two sentences in the movie, but were never the focus. I wonder if there was a better reason in the book for using the words 'prime numbers'. The only redeeming quality of the movie was that the first half was interesting enough to watch.