Review of Marriage Italian Style

... although there are occasional screwball elements. I was most struck in the first half how the Mastroianni character is constantly dashing Loren's dreams and expectations of how events are going to go - taking her to the races, getting her her own place, taking her to meet his mother. The (spoiler alert!) introduction of the children in the second half makes her motivations more palatable to me. She seems less pathetically clingy to this awful man because she wants legitimacy and security for her children. I saw the plot twist about how they initially get married coming from a mile away, but thankfully the whole movie doesn't hinge on that little bit of trickery. I thought Ms. Loren was masterful at playing her character at different ages and emotional states, yet always we felt like it was the same person.