Watching Human Capital is like being reminded of the types of people that you don’t want to hang around with. A schmarmy and opportunistic real-estate agent who latches on to wealthy friends – and on the flipside – the well-off who considers money to be the deciding factor over family, relationship and love. I can’t describe the story without spoiling the twists and turns that you discover when you see the movie. The pivot point of the story revolves around an incident that happens one Winter evening – when a cyclist is hit by a car. This incident is then dissected from three points of view, that are packaged as ‘chapters’ of the movie. Who drives the car? Is it the son of a wealthy, well-known investment banker? Or his close friend? What would you do to protect yourself in such a situation when somebody within your family is involved?
Through these three chapters we also learn that a quick judgment of an incident on face value sometimes leads to a very wrong conclusion. We don’t know the full story until we see from various points of view that are sometimes very unexpected.
Human Capital is Italy’s official in the foreign film category for the 2015 Academy Awards and I can see why. The story poses so many moral situations that may not be too easy to judge. The movie is presented well by Paolo Virzi – the director of the movie – who translates Stephen Amidon‘s novel into the big screen. I enjoyed the movie but as much as this would be frustrating for others, I would’ve preferred if the movie doesn’t tie everything nicely at the end. At the end of the story, all the loose ends are tied, and everything is more or less settled pretty well. I would’ve liked it if it ended on a darker note, as it would also bring greater impact to the postscript that is displayed at the end of the movie which explains the definition of “Human Capital” in insurance terms.
Rating:
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