Director: Bruno Oliveri.
Starring: Silvio Orlando, Giuseppe Battiston, Sandra Ceccarelli, Alice Raffaelli.
Running Time: 83 minutes.
Synopsis: Inspector Adriano Monaco has spent the past three years avoiding human contact after the death of his wife, simply filling out paperwork – but when a man is found dead and his daughter is arrested, he must get a grip on his world before it comes crashing down around him.
Straddling multiple genres but commanding none, Bruno Oliveri’s character-driven thriller THE HUMAN FACTOR (originally titled LA VARIABILE UMANA) seeks to explore involving themes but fails to involve its audience. Centring around Inspector Adriano Monaco’s (Silvio Orlando) struggle to come to terms with the death of his wife while attempting to work his job, THE HUMAN FACTOR attempts to set up a mystery of its own when a wealthy businessman is found shot dead and Adriano’s daughter Linda (Alice Raffaelli) is arrested for possession of a firearm.
The two seemingly unrelated events fool no one, but the plot isn’t the driving force behind THE HUMAN FACTOR. Indeed, what little substance there is to the ‘thriller’ side of the film feels more suited to a 45-minute TV episode than a fully realised feature film. Without enough narrative to fully flesh out the script, Oliveri falls back on the father-daughter relationship between Adriano and Linda as the focus of his film. Which would be fine, were it handled well. But the minutiae of the Monacos’ lives is simply dull – from buying groceries to fixing appliances, it doesn’t make for interesting viewing. The few moments of true father-daughter interaction are engaging, especially when addressing their odd relationship following Linda’s mother’s death, but there’s simply not enough of them.
Ultimately, THE HUMAN FACTOR doesn’t offer enough to keep audiences engaged, even for its relatively short running time. The cast put in fine performances with what they’re given, but perhaps this would have worked better as a pilot for a TV show, to focus the material into shorter bursts and allow for a more natural extension of its themes across a series. As a film, it sadly falls rather flat.
[usr=2] THE HUMAN FACTOR was screened as part of the Cinema Made In Italy film festival at the Cine Lumiere, London. Click here for more information. See the rest of our coverage here.
