You can’t tell a book by its cover, nor a movie by its plot. The Italian drama “Come Undone,” for instance, has a story line as old as movies themselves — infidelity.
But the director, Sivio Soldini, is able to take the shopworn theme and keep it interesting and fresh despite its lack of new ideas. He’s assisted by strong performances by his two leading actors.
Alba Rohrwacher is Anna, a pixieish woman who lives with her jolly, rotund boyfriend. She has an interesting job and seems to be content with life. Then, by chance, she meets a rugged waiter, Domenico (Pierfrancesco Favino), who has a wife and two kids — one still in a high chair — at home.
It doesn’t take long for them to end up in bed together. Anna has no trouble keeping her secret from her live-in, but it takes little time for Domenico’s harried wife to suspect something’s amiss.
In well-paced scenes that pay attention to details, Anna and Domenico must squeeze their brief trysts into their day-in-day-out lives. The two end up at a low-rent motel with garish red walls that emphasize the sordid, transient nature of their affair.
The outcome is of little surprise, but to Soldini’s credit, the predictability is no hindrance to enjoying “Come Undone.”