A Five Star Life

Margherita Buy stars in this Italian comedy as Irene, a professional “mystery guest” who turns up incognito at five-star hotels around the world, where she checks everything from the temperature of room-service soup to wait-staff courtesy to the presence of dust bunnies under beds. She reports her findings to an authoritative guidebook, but just like George Clooney's roaming hatchet man in Up in the Air, Irene has no real place roots nor a family of her own or much of anything in her life that allows for intimacy. The story follows Irene on a succession of hotel visits and little adventures that are interrupted only by her occasional duties as an aunt to two little nieces, her frequent dust-ups with a hypercritical younger sister, and her awkward relationship with a former lover who happens to be her best (and only) friend. Buy is terrific in the lead, and director Maria Sole Tognazzi brings a brisk, wry sensibility to this film that begins as light fare but ends on a profound note about human choices and destiny. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a behind-the-scenes featurette (9 min.), outtakes and a deleted scene (7 min. total), and trailers. Bottom line: a decent extras package for a charming foreign film.] (T. Keogh)