The movie Human Capital begins at the end, as a cyclist is run off the road by a careening SUV the night before Christmas Eve. As details emerge of the events leading up to the accident, the lives of the well-to-do Bernaschi family, privileged and detached, will intertwine with the Ossolas, struggling to keep their comfortable middle-class life, in ways neither could have expected. Dino Ossola (Fabrizio Bentivoglio), in dire financial straits, anticipates the birth of twins with his second wife (Valeria Golino, Rain Man).
Meanwhile, his teenage daughter’s relationship with hedge fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi’s playboy son complicates an already tricky social dance of status, money and ambition. Paolo Virzì’s taut character study deconstructs the typical linear narrative, observing transformative events from each character’s perspective.
The result is a nuanced account of desire, greed adn the value of human life in an age of rampant capitalism and financial manipulation.
