Bohemian Cinema By Jonathan Pacheco

Open Roads 2010: “One Life, Maybe Two”

Tags: Open Roads, Italian, Kieslowski, Tom Tykwer, The House Next Door

As part of the Open Roads: New Italian Cinema program by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York, I take a look at the tangent universes of One Life, Maybe Two:

As in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance (or its successor, Sliding Doors, if you’re more into Gwyneth Paltrow), Alessandro Aronadio’s One Life, Maybe Two presents the multiple paths a life takes based on the results of one diverging event, in this case a minor car accident. Chance alone determines whether the collision actually happens—will the brakes work or not?—with the aftermath of each outcome leading to two very different lives for Matteo (Lorenzo Balducci), a gardener and all-around good friend to his buddy Sandro (Riccardo Cicogna), who he was rushing to the hospital when the fender bender occurs (or nearly occurs). The two timelines share most of the same characters, but the accident displaces relationships, memories, and even personal morals depending on which parallel universe you happen to be in. Using a plot device as aggressive as split narratives in an independent, non-genre film is quite a gamble for Aronadio; most audiences are skeptical and ready to criticize the usage of such a gimmick, making it a much harder sell for the director, but while One Life, Maybe Two isn’t the strongest or most poignant example of the branching-universes concept, the film develops enough emotion and character to elevate it well beyond a cheap trick.