There are films that begin with a powerful idea and, at least on paper, seem to have all the ingredients to leave a lasting impression. Longing, released in Italy as “Era mio figlio” , is one of them.
Directed by Savi Gabizon, who also wrote and directed the original 2017 Israeli film on which this version is based, Longing brings the story into a Western setting and gives Richard Gere the role of Daniel Bloch, a wealthy American bachelor in his sixties.
And I have to admit: when I started watching it, I was very curious. Not only because Richard Gere was in it, but because the subject immediately struck me as deeply human:
How much can our life be changed by discovering something we should have known twenty years earlier?
A son discovered too late
Daniel learns from his former girlfriend Rachel that, twenty years earlier, she had become pregnant and had a son by him. Daniel never knew he was a father, but the news arrives in the cruelest possible way.
His son has just died in a car accident.
It is a double trauma: first the discovery that he has a son and, almost at the very same moment, the realization that he has lost forever the chance to know him.
Daniel then begins searching for Alan through the memories of the people who knew him. He meets those who were part of his son’s life and tries to reconstruct his personality, his friendships, his relationships and even the darker sides of his existence.
It is as if he is desperately trying to recover twenty years of a life that were taken away from him.
And this, to me, is the most fascinating part of the film. Daniel can no longer become a father in the traditional sense. He can only become a father through the memories of others.
Richard Gere and the pain he keeps inside
This is where Richard Gere convinces me once again. He doesn’t need dramatic gestures or emotional outbursts. His Daniel is above all a lost, bewildered man, almost unable to understand how someone so important to him could have existed without him ever knowing.
Gere relies heavily on pauses, looks and silence. And this allows him to portray a very particular kind of grief: mourning someone you never had the chance to know.
It is a paradoxical situation, but precisely for that reason, it is fascinating. Daniel mourns a son he never held in his arms. He regrets conversations that never happened. He wonders who his son might have become. And perhaps, more than anything, he wonders who he himself might have been if he had known he was a father.
When the film rakes a different direction
This is where, personally, my doubts begin. The first part of Longing succeeds in building an emotionally engaging story. But as it progresses, the narrative becomes increasingly surreal and, in my opinion, less believable.
The situations Daniel encounters during his search become progressively more unlikely, and some of the narrative choices ultimately move the film away from the authentic sense of grief that worked so well at the beginning.
And this is where I feel the film loses some of its initial power.
Another courageous choice
Anyone who follows my blog knows how much I love Richard Gere. And perhaps precisely because of that, I don’t feel the need to pretend that every one of his cinematic choices is necessarily successful.
One of the things I have always admired about him is his willingness to step outside his comfort zone and take on complicated, ambiguous characters, often far removed from the romantic leading man the public has associated with him for so many years.
Longing is another interesting challenge: he plays a man who suddenly discovers a lost fatherhood while simultaneously having to confront the discovery of a son and the grief of having lost him.
It is a powerful premise.
Unfortunately, in my opinion, the later development of the story fails to maintain all of that emotional strength.
My verdict: Richard Gere, yes. The film, not quite.
I say this with some difficulty, precisely because whenever Richard Gere is involved, I naturally find myself looking for the best in his work.
But this time I want to be honest.
I adore Richard Gere and admire him deeply as an actor, but Longing is not one of his films that I will carry in my heart. His performance is intense, restrained and sincere. Once again, Gere gives the very best of himself and manages to bring dignity and humanity to a character placed inside a story that, particularly in its second half, becomes, in my opinion, rather implausible.
And unfortunately, this time, it wasn’t enough. The film did not receive a particularly strong response from either audiences or critics, but that doesn’t change my admiration for Richard.
If anything, it reinforces it. Because continuing to challenge yourself also means accepting that not every gamble will turn into a success.
And I will continue to follow him precisely for that reason. I would rather see a Richard Gere who takes risks, experiments and occasionally gets it wrong than an actor who spends his entire career choosing only what he already knows he can do well.
Longing may not be the film I would have wanted to see. Richard Gere, however, is still Richard Gere. And for me, that means that even when a film doesn’t completely convince me, there is always something in his performance worth watching.
Longing: Richard Gere faces the pain of discovering a son — and losing him
