The opening scenes of Mascarpone, a new queer dramady from co-directors Alessandro Guida and Matteo Pilati, is set to send shivers down the backs of quite a few gay men in long-term relationships. A rather oblivious Antonio (Giancarlo Commare) is abruptly told by his long-time husband Lorenzo (Carlo Calderone) that their marriage is over as he has fallen in love with someone else.
It’s a rude wake-up call for Antonio who had ong since given up his architect job to split his time between keeping house, baking cakes, and going to the gym. When Lorenzo tells him to move out he sends up renting a room from Denis (Eduardo Valdarnini) a-larger-then-life sex worker with a very vivid imagination. Denis also fixes him up with a job as an apprentice baker with Luca (Gianmarco Saurino) one of his many ‘friends’ with benefits.’
The next hurdle Antonio must now deal with is learning how to date again : its a different world out there since he got married. He adapts to the physical side of it by sleeping with everyone he hooked up with on Grindr but ‘falling in love’ was a more difficult concept. That is until Thomas (Lorenzo Adorni) came along. He is as sweet as the pastries that Antonio is now baking with Luca (who he is also sleeping with on and off, but he still cannot completely get his ex Lorenzo out of his head and heart.
By now we are firmly enchanted with Antonio, who is both charming and handsome and like a little lost dog, so much so that we feel very invested in where his journey will/should lead.
With an excellent script and storyline, Mascapone is a contemporary queer love story that quickly engages us and keeps us enthralled to the very end. There but the grace of God go we ….. although we have to admit probably with not such good-looking players in our own stories.
Kudos to Guida and Pilati for their intelligent take on urban queer love and life. Also for ensembling such a talented cast to live it out so authentically, and proving that we all need some drama in our lives, Plus we will pay much more attention to the Baker next time we go to a Patissiere.
