Perfetti Sconosciuti (4 Stars)

Smile!

Best friends grouped together for a selfie. That's something popular in today's smartphone age. It's difficult for young people to imagine a world where it wasn't done. It's even more impossible to imagine a world without smartphones.

"Perfetti Sconoscuiti" (engl. "Perfect Strangers") is an Italian film made in 2016 that shows the dark side of the smartphone cultures. The shiny little gadgets don't bring us closer together, they tear us apart. Husbands and wives don't share a phone, they each have their own. The marriage partners have their own secret lives locked up in their smartphones.

Seven people meet for dinner. Four couples, but one of the men arrives alone. His girlfriend is sick, he says, although we later find out he's lying. The secrecy of smartphones is discussed at the dinner table. Then they decide to play a game. Their phones have to be put in the centre of the table. Whenever there's a phone call, it has to be answered on speaker phone. Every text message and email received has to be read aloud. This simple little game tears couples apart and wrecks friendships.

This is the film that kicked off the global film frenzy. In the five years since 2016 it's been remade EIGHTEEN times in countries all over the world. A further six remakes are being developed. The story has touched a nerve.

I've already watched three of the remakes: Spanish, German and French. The story is identical in each, even though the style is different. The German version attempts to be comical, but the original Italian version is deadly serious. It has the same plot twist that the French version has, but I think it was missing from the Spanish version. I need to watch it again. I wonder when an English version will finally be made.

The film has only been released in Italy, but the Italian Blu-ray has English subtitles.