To me, this movie is perfection.

Simply A Masterpiece

Good start, but then it gets ruined

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Ten out of ten is inadequate for this film; twenty out of ten would be more appropriate. This is one of the most rewarding and moving films to be made for years. Everything about the film shows genius at work, the directing, the writing, the acting, all of the highest possible quality. Somebody should invent 'international Oscars' to award to it. The story is double-stranded, complex, interweaving, compelling, intriguing, everything one wants really. The film is dedicated to Massimo Girotti, who died before its release and gave one of its finest performances as the enigmatic old man, 'Simone', around whom both intertwining stories revolve. One does not wish to betray the plot surprises and revelations by explaining too much. The whole film is based upon whether a man takes a left turn or a right turn, and the tragic consequences either way. One story takes place in 1943, and the other in the current day, but not everyone still alive is new to the story, as the viewer discovers, as layer after layer of revelation occurs. The film is so deeply pathetic, tragic, emotional, and at the same time life-affirming that all the emotions are let loose at once. And all those pastries! What a feast!

This movie would even appeal to non-drama goers with it's mysterious jumps into the past. It deals with the struggles of a young mid-class family trying to make ends and their passion meet. Along comes a stranger (an older gentlemen), with problems of his own, who forces the heroine to change her approach on life and (PERHAPS A SPOILER) to realize that the life she has been given is by no means misfortunate, perhaps just a bit unfulfilled... This elderly gentlemen, in a state of loss, comes across this couples life, not knowing who he is and where he should go to. The heroine's husband having a soft heart and not wanting to just leave him on the streets decides to bring him into their home.

In "Facing Windows", a young mother's marriage is tested by economic woes as two men complicate her life. One is a handsome young banker with whom she becomes voyeuristically involved via facing windows across an alleyway. The other is a senile walk-away whom she takes in temporarily. As her divided affections become increasingly a challenge, she finds comfort and support as the old man teaches her about love, sacrifice, and pastry making."Facing Windows" is beautifully filmed and augmented with Giovanna Mezzogiorno's lovely visage filling the screen much of the time. However, as the plot thickens, it becomes so complex that empathy gives way to analysis and some of the lyric beauty is buried in assorted character convulsions. Still a worthwhile watch for anyone interested in Italian romantic melodrama. (B+)

I found this movie to be well made and meaningful. The acting was fine, but it was the plot that really carried the movie. Occasionally, a movie makes a connection with either a book or a previous movie which is uncanny in its similarity. When I watched Apocalypse Now, the connection was with Heart of Darkness. With Facing Windows, the movie could have been intentionally designed as a sequel to a black and white movie starring Marcello Mastriani as an intellectual homosexual in 1930's Rome. Across the alley was Sophia Loren who played the unloved wife of a fascist who was lonelyand attracted to Mastriani (without knowing his predilection). In the end, Un Giorno Speciale is of course a much more refined film, however, the elderly character in Facing Windows could have easily been based upon what fictionally could have happened to Mastriani's character after his days in fascist Rome. I would highly recommend seeing Un Giorno Speciale either before or after seeing Facing Windows.