Review: 'Romantic Guide to Lost Places'

Oct. 8—Benno (Clive Owen) is an Englishman living in Italy. He's a raging alcoholic who keeps a bottle of vodka suspended from a string outside his window (so that his wife doesn't see it). He's all packed for an extended stay in rehab at his wife's insistence.

Allegra (Jasmine Trinca) lives in the apartment below. She's an anxiety-ridden agoraphobe and blogger whose "Romantic Guide to Lost Places" is a fabricated account of her world travels. Her followers on social media don't know that it's all made up. Even her boyfriend doesn't know.

When Benno comes home one night after a bender, he fumbles at Allegra's door, mistaking it for his own, and she thinks he's trying to break in. In the midst of a full-blown panic attack, she calls the police and they end up in an ambulance together.

This is not a love story per se. Director Giorgia Farina's atypical road movie is about two people who see something of themselves in one another, something broken and in need of understanding.

Farina wisely doesn't try to change these antiheroes. Instead, she places them in situations where they deepen their understanding of themselves as they learn more about each other. Neither of them seems to judge the other.

The places they visit are a reflection of themselves. These aren't the glamorous hotspots like Paris and London, but the forgotten backwaters and remote locations the tourists rarely see — real places for people who've lost sight of their real selves.

Drama, not rated, 108 minutes, in English and Italian with subtitles; 10:10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 14, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 17, Violet Crown