STAY AWAY FROM ME/STAI LONTANO DA ME

Italy, 2013, 82 minutes, Colour.
Enrico Brignano, Ambra Angiolini.
Directed by Alessio Maria Federici.

This is a slight comedy, Italian-style.

The film opens well with a wedding and the groom saying the wrong name for his wife, a huge clash, but a marriage counsellor coming in, attacking the groom in the eyes of the bride, her attacking the counsellor and, so, reconciling, the ceremony going on.

This introduces us to the central character, Jacopo, and we see him in many scenes doing his thing as marriage counsellor, urging all kinds of different aspects of therapy, screaming and shouting in anger, a couple watching pornographic films together,…

At the wedding, he is approached by a young, very competent, woman who is attracted to him. She has problems in relationships and comes to him for help. What happens is that they fall in love.

But, there is a problem. Rather, everything that Jacopo does leads to some kind of disaster, falling down steps, to car crashes… And it happens with his new relationship, she having all kinds of problems. The question is, who is responsible for the jinx?

Jacopo thinks that it is himself, as we see in flashbacks the dreadfully disastrous events that Jacopo has with all his girlfriends and the sufferings that that had to endure because of him.

The young woman has the possibility of promotion in her architectural work, especially designing a new church. She feels that it is Jacopo who is to blame, and they separate. Her design for a Cathedral is waylaid by her ambitious boss was persuaded to display all kinds of designs with a Christmas Day theme, including a Christmas cake! Clerics responsible are dismayed, especially when a wrong disk is played for them which has some pornography sequences instead of the church plan. However, all is well again when the clergy accept the creative plan.

Jacopo is sad, but realistic, and remembers that a young girl put a curse on him while they were at school. Off he goes to live in Greece, away from everyone – and whom should encounter but the young girl grown into a woman, living there with her son. In contact with his girlfriend once again, he begs that the curse be withdrawn – and the woman, tongue in cheek, pretends to absorb the curse and off he goes contented. He rushes to the church where he thinks X is being married only to find that she is part of the congregation and they kiss happily – forever after.

Will the jinx be lifted – fully or just a couple of cases?