Stalking has been treated as a normal part of romance since before movies were even a thing. While Sholay is a classic, the basis of Veeru and Basanti’s romantic subplot is stalking, bordering on sexual harassment. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is considered a classic, and many idolise Raj and Simran’s relationship as the epitome of romance, but the pair came together thanks to Raj’s not-so-subtle art of stalking. Bachna Ae Haseeno repurposed this trope and attempted to make things better by having this new-age Raj apologise for his sins.
Tere Naam and Kabir Singh upended any progress Hindi cinema might have made in treating stalking and physical abuse as the cornerstones of romance. Then there were atrocities like Saawariya, Raanjhanaa, R… Rajkumar and Love Aaj Kal (2020) that defined what the glorification of problematic stereotypes actually means. Now, I assumed Bollywood had given me ample training in dealing with creepy on-screen behavior without getting frustrated. But the Italians surprised me with The Love Scam, and not in a good way.
Director: Umberto Riccioni Carteni
Writers: Caterina Salvadori, Ciro Zecca
Stars: Laura Adriani, Roberto De Francesco, Loris De Luna
Umberto Riccioni Carteni's The Love Scam, written by Caterina Salvadori and Cira Zecca, tells the story of a single father named Vito, his son, Napoleon, and Vito's brother, Antonello. Back in the day, Vito and Antonello's father built an apartment building, which also doubles as a restaurant, in one of the most lucrative locations in Naples. But in the present day, the place has become dangerous for everyone. Naturally, people are moving out, thus depriving the brothers of the money to fix up the place.
Both Vito and Antonello are unemployed. Also, Antonello and his friend Salvatore have racked up a huge amount of debt after closing a bad deal with De Leonardi, who happens to be the owner of a construction company that is engaging in discreet gentrification. While De Leonardi is the head of this company, it is his daughter Marina and future son-in-law Federico who make the important decisions. And since Marina seemingly cares about the poor while being filthy rich, Antonello tells Vito to pose as a rich guy, woo Marina, and then get her to make a donation so the brothers can save their house. Unsurprisingly, Vito and Marina fall for each other for real, which turns out to be a huge setback in both of their plans.
The Love Scam isn't the first movie, and it definitely won't be the last, to use the cliché of fake lovers becoming true lovers, but it could have been one of the movies that didn't use stalking as a springboard for the romance between Vito and Marina. Yes, the writers address the fact that Vito is stalking Marina, but simply acknowledging the film's central flaw doesn't automatically make it acceptable. Stalking is still stalking, regardless of how you look at it. And the annoying thing is that the writers could have completely avoided resorting to such atrocious levels of creepiness.
Even if you are a newbie to the romance genre, I am sure that even you, yes, you, could have come up with something better than trapping a woman in an elevator, following her to her yoga session, and having her car towed so the man can take her. I won’t even get into the casual sexism that the film propagates in the name of “criticizing” feminism and such. What is frustrating, however, is that the writers try to justify it all by implying that since Marina is rich and on the side of the capitalists, it is okay for Vito to harass and scam her. As if Vito is not just like any other weirdo who goes around harassing women, but a Robin Hood-style stalker. I can’t even.
On top of all these problematic issues, The Love Scam suffers from another problem that is becoming quite prevalent in the rom-com genre: the lack of proper structure. I know the three-act rule doesn't have to be followed strictly, but it helps when you have no idea how to tell a story. So, according to the three-act structure, first there's the introduction, then there's the confrontation, and then there's the resolution.
Now, if you watch Carteni's Netflix film, you see that there's a lot of context and little to no time for confrontation and resolution. This style of storytelling works when the film doesn't need conflict, like in Thiruchitrambalam and Premalu. But if the film is built on a conflict of interest and everything is saved for the last 15 minutes of the narrative, then we've got a big problem. This isn't the first time Carteni has gotten into trouble. So how can he not realize that if the romantic leads' relationship isn't properly tested, the chemistry won't be palpable to the audience?
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