REVIEW: ‘The Invisible Thread’ A Tale of Love, Loss, and Growth

International cinema is such a uniquely diverse space. There are so many unique perspectives, and stories to be told. So when I saw the title, The Invisible Thread, described as an Italian comedic documentary coming to Netflix, it piqued my interest. Directed by Marco Simon Puccioni, the movie tells of a coming of age story about a teenage boy tasked with making a documentary about his LGBTQ+ family and discovers far more than he expected to. Leone, played by Francesco Gheghi, attempts to tackle life as his family is rocked to their core, while also trying to live his life, fall in love, and go on adventures.

The Invisible Thread checks the box for so many different genres, at times it’s coming of age, it’s a comedy, it’s a family drama, and is initially framed as a documentary. Yet, the film never feels weighed down by its diversity in tone. It’s one of the elements I really liked about The Invisible Thread overall, the blending of topics seamlessly flows from point to point and it captures the messiness of life.

The chaos in the film is captured in such a comedic interpretation through the performances of Paolo (Filippo Timi), and Simone (Francesco Scianna), Leone’s fathers. Timi and Scianna bring a larger-than-life emotion to the role and really play into the exuberance of the situation. The energy injected into the performances worked so well during scenes when a certain level of sentiment was needed, and it also played well during moments of absurdity that dials up the humor levels. The two fathers both were able to bring in aspects of varying styles of hilarity through either physical comedy or just their bombastic reactions to hostile situations.

While the tone of the film works, the pacing leaves a lot to be desired. Sadly, in part, this is down to the effort of trying to develop the characters by adding depth so that the resolution of the story hits with more gusto. While the intent is there, more often than not these scenes feel more transitional, with little to no value. This feels harsh because I can see the aim with certain situations, but again it just doesn’t land. You end up with some decently funny, or heartfelt moments within the film, contrasted lulls in the story that cause you to lose focus.

Some of these issues not only result from the pacing, but the younger actors surrounding Leone aren’t quite capable of engaging in the story that allows the performances to jump from the screen and hold your gaze.

I really did enjoy The Invisible Thread. While the film is slightly unbalanced from the pedigree of acting performances and its pacing, there’s a lot here to enjoy. There are some brilliant moments of comedy that really left me laughing at the absurdity of the situations. The story itself really has a lot of weight behind it, and as a drama it does land, but overall there are a lot of moments in between that drag the film down. It’s a decent watch if you have some time, but very much a streaming film as well.

The Invisible Thread is available now exclusively on Netflix.