If you've read anything at all about Il Capitale Humano, you might have stumbled on words like 'whodunit'. This'll give you the impression you're about to watch a Miss Marple episode and while this is somewhat the case, it's also quite far removed from the truth.
The film's structured in four chapters. The first three show the same timespan from differing points of view while the fourth functions as the denouement. There's a prologue: a working man cycles home late at night and is driven off the road by a driver who quickly tries to pass by him. The cyclist lies there with a serious head injury, helpless. Some time before that, we meet Dino who's driving his daughter Serena to a friend, Massimiliano, the son of a rich businessman, Giovanni. While they disappear off-screen, we follow Dino in his desperate attempts to befriend the head of the family so he can close a business deal with him. In the next chapter we follow Giovanni's wife, Carla, who's has to give up a lot to live her comfortable live, but finds an opportunity to reignite her past passions and interests. The third chapter shows what Serena's been up to and everything comes together in the final chapter, aptly titled Il Capitale Humano.
Needless to say, the first three chapters are structured like a mystery. The mystery of who's responsible for the accident is slowly uncovered, but it's not really the central theme. In the end, it's not a question of 'whodunit', but the dynamics between these characters and their positions in society and relative to each other. In this sense, it feels more like an Iñárritu film (Babel, etc.) in that there's a single incident that causes a butterfly effect, drastically altering the lives of many.
In the end, it's a great tragicomedy about greed and modern life, admittedly overly familiar themes here packaged into a cinematically satisfying whole. The film is particularly aware of the great irony of money being perceived as the way to happiness (though the film thankfully doesn't fall into the trap of showing the happy poor/middle class and the unhappy rich, a trap Woody Allen fell into when he made Blue Valentine). This is particularly apparent in a scene towards the end where Dino does something drastic for the sake of his and his family's financial future, an act that will have dire consequences for his daughter. Most characters, especially parental figures, seek to make money out of the conviction it'll be the end of their (and others') problems; instead, only more problems are created. The very term 'human capital' exemplifies this. How can a human being and his situation be translated into monetary value? Il Capitale Humano has the answer.
The film's structured in four chapters. The first three show the same timespan from differing points of view while the fourth functions as the denouement. There's a prologue: a working man cycles home late at night and is driven off the road by a driver who quickly tries to pass by him. The cyclist lies there with a serious head injury, helpless. Some time before that, we meet Dino who's driving his daughter Serena to a friend, Massimiliano, the son of a rich businessman, Giovanni. While they disappear off-screen, we follow Dino in his desperate attempts to befriend the head of the family so he can close a business deal with him. In the next chapter we follow Giovanni's wife, Carla, who's has to give up a lot to live her comfortable live, but finds an opportunity to reignite her past passions and interests. The third chapter shows what Serena's been up to and everything comes together in the final chapter, aptly titled Il Capitale Humano.
Needless to say, the first three chapters are structured like a mystery. The mystery of who's responsible for the accident is slowly uncovered, but it's not really the central theme. In the end, it's not a question of 'whodunit', but the dynamics between these characters and their positions in society and relative to each other. In this sense, it feels more like an Iñárritu film (Babel, etc.) in that there's a single incident that causes a butterfly effect, drastically altering the lives of many.
In the end, it's a great tragicomedy about greed and modern life, admittedly overly familiar themes here packaged into a cinematically satisfying whole. The film is particularly aware of the great irony of money being perceived as the way to happiness (though the film thankfully doesn't fall into the trap of showing the happy poor/middle class and the unhappy rich, a trap Woody Allen fell into when he made Blue Valentine). This is particularly apparent in a scene towards the end where Dino does something drastic for the sake of his and his family's financial future, an act that will have dire consequences for his daughter. Most characters, especially parental figures, seek to make money out of the conviction it'll be the end of their (and others') problems; instead, only more problems are created. The very term 'human capital' exemplifies this. How can a human being and his situation be translated into monetary value? Il Capitale Humano has the answer.