‘Salt of Life’ a poignant, funny take on midlife crisis

In the surprise 2010 arthouse hit “Mid-August Lunch” (which played the Wisconsin Film Festival), and now the follow-up, “The Salt of Life,” Gianni Di Gregorio often wears one expression. It’s a look of world-weary patience, a soliticous smile tinged with sadness, as the 63-year-old Italian agreeably rushes to tend to the needs of one woman after another.

In the lovely “Lunch,” which Di Gregorio wrote and directed, he was mostly ministering to the needs of his 96-year-old mother (Valeria de Franciscis) and her elderly friends. In the charming “Salt of Life,” his sphere of service has expanded seemingly to every woman in Rome, young or old.

In fact, for a while I thought Di Gregorio was playing the same character (who is called Gianni in both films). His mother is again played by Franciscis, now living in an expensive retirement community, and thinking nothing of calling her son across town to fix the television reception. But while Gianni was a confirmed bachelor in the first film, in this one he has a wife (Elisabeth Piccolomini), although their relationship is more affectionate roommates than lifelong lovers.

When he’s not serving breakfast to his wife, his daughter or his daughter’s layabout boyfriend, Gianni takes a minute to examine himself in the mirror – his wrinkled skin, his graying hair, the saddlebags under his eyes. He worries that he’s slipping from middle age into old age, ready to take his place sitting on a street corner with all the other old codgers in the neighborhood.

“Salt” is basically an amusing series of episodes in which Gianni tries to fight against this fate by finding a lover, young and voluptuous, to inject some vitality back into his life. Candidates include his mother’s housekeeper, an old girlfriend, and, possibly, a beautiful young downstairs neighbor whose affection for Gianni might just cross the line from daughterly into something more.

This premise could tip over into lechery – Gianni is married, for heaven’s sake. But Di Gregorio has such a sure grasp on tone that instead the movie is funny and a little touching, especially since Gianni’s amorous advances either fail or are thwarted by unforeseen circumstances. He often seems too polite to directly proposition a woman, and she’s usually oblivious to the yearning we plainly see in his hangdog eyes.

The film ends with a dream sequence, set to the Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man,” in which all the women Gianni has been lusting after come together to honor him. “Salt of Life” somehow takes what should be the leering thoughts of a dirty old man, and makes them poignant.