Ostinato destino (1992)

Ostinato destino (Wayward Destiny) stars Monica Bellucci in a dual role of good and evil twin sisters Marina and Angela.  The story starts off with the death of a wealthy woman named Carolina Rambaldi, who throws her ungrateful children a curve-ball during the reading of the will when conditions are  imposed upon the disposition of the inheritance.  Whoever is married and has a child within a year and a half will gain control of all her assets.  But all three of her children don't seem to have much chance of meeting those requirements anytime soon.  Marcello is an incredibly lazy ladies man, Lucrezia is incredibly bossy and men are not attracted to her, and Cesare is gay and malicious.  The one with the best shot of obtaining the inheritance is Marcello who happens to be young and good looking, lucky for him he runs across Marina (Monica Bellucci) whose about to jump off a bridge to her death (undoubtedly all part of a plan to con some sorry sap).  In an attempt to stop her Marcello topples over the railing and luckily survives with only a minor concussion, but finds himself enthralled by the stunning Marina.

Marina is essentially the text book definition of a "gold digger", in the extreme sense of the word.  Shes' not really interested in Marcello until she see's where he lives and learns he must be married to obtain his inheritance, then quickly agrees to marry him.  After the marriage she tries multiple times to kill him in an attempt to acquire his wealth. On the one occasion she almost succeeds she learns that he's still not eligible to receive his mother's assets until they have a child.  With that knowledge Marina turns up the heat in the romance department, only to be quite disappointed when she has a miscarriage.  When she goes to visit her sister, Angela, she informs her of a clinic in Germany that specializes in embryo transplants, Marina decides to go and have the procedure, requesting her twin sister take her place so that no one learns of what she's doing.

To call Marcello and Marina's marriage a happy one would be more made up than their complete fabrication of the marriage to begin with.  Marina might be even more conceded and evil than Marcello's brother and sister who revert to attempting to kill Marina before she has the baby and get the inheritance.  But when her sister, Angela, takes her place Marcello witnesses a whole new side of "Marina" and actually begins to fall in love with who he thinks is his wife.  And things get even more interesting when it appears Angela is falling for him as well, then Marina returns...

Ostinato destino is the first of the early Monica Bellucci films I was able to find subtitles for, so it made the viewing experience a little more enjoyable being able to know exactly what was going on.  It's a rather odd comedy yet the inclusion of Bellucci in dual roles that are polar opposites of one another make it fairly enjoyable and also showcase that Bellucci has more going for her than simply a beautiful figure.  She does an outstanding job making you despise Marina and love Angela, definitely a challenge to portray two different types of characters in one film and pulled it off extremely well.  Critically and financially the film was a failure, yet I found the overall camp of the comedy and dual role of Bellucci to be slightly more entertaining than her previous endeavors.  The only real criticism is the last 15 to 20 minutes get really bizarre as one of the main characters gets blown up, an embryo in a sphere is tossed down flights of stairs and Bellucci in a Snow White costume is chased by a man in drag wearing a witch costume...  those Italians have an interesting sense of humor!

7/10

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