Pietro (Elio Germano) has just moved into a fancy new apartment in Rome, it being his first step towards getting his life back in order. Before he was just a night-time pastry chef and having an oddly-too-comfortable living arrangement with his cousin Maria (Paola Minaccioni), but now he's going full steam ahead into his acting career, and hoping to win back his estranged boyfriend Massimo (Giorgio Marchesi). Unfortunately, the new apartment is being haunted to a troupe of actors, none of which realise they're dead. They need Pietro to help them find the missing member of their group, and in the meantime, try to help him with his acting.
It doesn't take long to realise that there is something just a little bit off about A Magnificent Haunting. It plays light and loose like a frothy comedy, but there is a constant dark undertone to proceedings always knocking the tone of the movie sideways, so you're never laughing for too long before being made uncomfortable. From the incest-y vibe with his cousin who seemingly won't accept his homosexuality, to the backstory involving Massimo, as well as how the ghosts came to be ghosts in the first place; it's nice to have moments of seriousness in the midst of all the levity, but these moments are TOO serious, taking a lot the fun out of what has gone before.
Germano does a good job as the put upon Pietro, and between the troupe and some random one-off supporting characters he meets throughout the movie, there's an awful lot to like here. Some of the comedic scenes are spot-on, like Pietro's first audition where he's ordered into a multitude of emotions in less than fifteen seconds. In fact, the entire movie is screaming out for a "Birdcage"-esque American remake, where better comedic writers will bump up the laughs and dump some of the unnecessary darkness.
A mild diversion with some good performances, but due to its schizophrenic nature and too many loose ends left dangling, not as magnificent as it might have been.
