Bolgia totale (2014) review

Bolgia totale’, which translates as total nightmare (more-or-less), is a 2014 crime drama from writer/director Matteo Scifoni. However, there is a brief reference in the film to Dante’s circles of hell, with one of our main characters stating his agreement that we currently live in one big circle of hell, and I think this is perhaps more accurate in regard to the translation.  

Anyway, the film follows the drug addicted, alcoholic aging copy Inspector Quinto Cruciani (Giorgio Colangeli) who, when tasked with watching over two recently arrested addicts, one of which is unconscious, finds himself unable to stay focused. One of the addicts, Michele Loi (Domenico Diele), escapes and Cruciani ends up on the pavement outside having had a heart attack while trying to give chase. 

Cruciani’s boss gives the Inspector an ultimatum. Either find Loi within three days or say goodbye to his pension.  

This basic premise is decent, and Scifoni’s script manages to work in Loi’s predicament too, wherein the bust that went wrong sees him end up owing a Polish drug dealer around 70k, who at least gives him a week to sort out his problem. 

So, we see the two lives of the men criss-cross and with it a little character depth begins to build. This works reasonably well, and I did buy into the story and the action but when we got to only fifteen minutes of the runtime remaining and the finale was clearly fast approaching I felt a little cheated. There was no way that Scifoni was going to satisfactorily end it in that time was he? 

And he didn’t. The violent end was logical, but was too abrupt compared to what came before. We knew both men were prone to violence when pushed (or even not in Loi’s case) but after the build up, it seemed rushed and I would have rather the tension of a potential confrontation happened earlier in the film to up the ante and the risk, rather than so late. Admiteddly, to do this the film might have had to lose some of the character establishment, I wouldn’t necessarily say development, but as we never really get to know Cruciani, only his actions, I don’t think this would have been a great loss.  

Overall, Scifoni’s reach exceeded his grasp and a strong concept didn’t translate onto the page or screen. This is perhaps best exemplified by the ending which tried to be emotional but fell a little flat. It would however, be interesting to see this expanded into either a novel or series. 

Ultimately, ‘Bolgia totale’ fails to live up to its name, whichever way you want to translate it, but at least you don’t feel like you have wasted your time.  

Side note the film features Gianmarco Tognazzi, son of Ugo Tognazzi.