The biopic condenses (too much) a career that has lasted over twenty years, leaving us the desire to learn more about one of the most legendary (and loved) footballers of our country
A high penalty shot. “A mistake I had never made in my entire career”, Roberto Baggio will repeat to exhaustion in the following years. That’s where the movie starts, on Netflix starting May 26, The Divine Codino, on the football career of one of the best (and loved, as the film recalls several times and as shown in the epic final scene) Italian footballers. “Our Maradona” is told from the beginning, since it is one 17-year-old promise of football in the ranks of Lanerossi Vicenza. With several flashback that take us back to childhood. One in particular: summer 1970, the final of the World Cup in Mexico airs on TV, the match of Italy’s defeat 4 to 1 against Brazil. Baggio is three years old and already dreams of being a footballer. “That evening you told me: Dad, I’ll win the world cup against Brazil”, He reminds him at one point of his father to motivate him after the first of a long series of knee injuries. A promise (never made?) That will become his mantra and the goal to pursue.
The part, not easy, of Baggio fell to Andrea Arcangeli (while that of Andreina, girlfriend and later wife, of the football player is played by the talented Valentina Bellè), 27, recently seen in the series Romulus su Sky Atlantic. Directing there is Letizia Lamartire (which debuted in 2018 with the film We will be young and beautiful), while Ludovica Rampoldi and Stefano Sardo signed the subject and screenplay. A lot of space, in the film, is also given to private life. There family of origin, 8 children, a father who wanted to be a professional cyclist and who exchanged that dream with the needs of home. And Andreina, always alongside Baggio, even in long periods of separation. In addition, of course, to the Buddhist faith, to which he was introduced from a very young age by the owner of a record shop and which, it is worth remembering, was much less mainstream of today.
As for the career, in less than two hours, with a few cuts here and there, they flow 22 years of life in the field. The 1993 Golden Ball, the “unemployed” period (“they accuse me of not doing the dressing room, the reality is that I overshadow the coaches”), The refused proposal to go and play in Japan. IS the return to Brescia, in 2000, with Carlo Mazzone, which builds the team around him and brings him back to the top. Until the hope of playing a last World Cup, that of 2022, with Giovanni Trapattoni’s national team which, as we all know, will not be realized.
Obviously, a lot of space is given to 1994 World Cup, those lost in the final against Brazil and the famous missed penalty by Baggio, shot very high over the crossbar. Coach of the Azzurri was Arrigo Sacchi what, no The Divine Codino, is portrayed as a detestable individual (the film is clearly, told from the point of view of Baggio, who gave his blessing to the project).
That of biopic it is a dangerous playground. There are those who manage to condense a life into two hours, those who choose to tell only a part of it to avoid the risk of an overview that does not go beyond the surface. A recipe that works regardless does not exist. The Divine Codinodespite the best efforts, it leaves you unsatisfied. With the feeling of having reviewed what you already knew. Perhaps, it would have been worth it to make a miniseries like for I was hoping de died first (on Sky) dedicated to another legend of Italian football: Francesco Totti.
