In 1970s Rome, Clara is a nonconformist Spanish expatriate trapped in a loveless marriage to Felice, an unfaithful and abusive businessman, with whom she has three children: Adriana, Gino and Diana. Their eldest child, 12-year-old Adriana, experiences gender dysphoria. Adriana rejects girlhood and instead identifies as a boy, wearing boys' clothes and adopting the masculine name Andrea.[a] One day, Andrea befriends Sara, a Romani girl who knows him as a boy. Upon a shared sense of being outsiders, Andrea and Clara grow closer.
The screenplay was written by Crialese, Francesca Manieri and Vittorio Moroni.[8] An Italian-French co-production,[9]L'immensità was produced by Wildside, Warner Bros. Entertainment Italia, Chapter 2, Pathé, and France 3 Cinéma.[6]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, L'Immensità holds an approval rating of 83% based on 59 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "L'immensità can be excessively immense at times but with an always superlative Penélope Cruz at its core, this vibrant coming-of-age story with undeniable heart is a memorable experience."[12]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 19 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[13]
Leslie Felperin of The Hollywood Reporter summed the film up as "a vibrant, if over-crammed, family affair."[4] For Variety, Guy Lodge writes that the film "is too palpably pained and heartfelt to be called slight, but it's sensitive and peculiar in ways that feel fragile".[6]
Robbie Collin, writing for The Daily Telegraph, rated the film four out of five stars, deeming the "surprisingly autobiographical" picture to be "a child's-eye-view portrait of domestic sadness and the craving for escape from it".[14] Wendy Ide of Screen Daily highlighted Cruz's performance as "a cross between Sophia Loren and a solar flare".[15] Stephanie Bunbury of Deadline Hollywood considered that deep down, the film "is fundamentally quite bleak, but it wears a delightfully cheerful face".[5]
