Stream It Or Skip It: ‘La Chimera’ on Hulu, the Josh O’Connor-Alice Rohrwacher Collab You Didn’t Know Would Blow You Away

La Chimera (now streaming on Hulu) gives us what we may expect from an Alice Rohrwacher film: an unconventional narrative, authentic and grainy images, a distinct sense of setting, an indistinct sense of time, an even less distinct sense of reality, and more than a little mischief. This 2023 outing (which follows the filmmaker’s absolutely delightful 2022 short Le Pupille, which you can stream on Disney+, and you absolutely should, right now) stars Josh O’Connor, whose stock has risen significantly in recent months – La Chimera falls between his TV breakout on The Crown and his film breakout in Challengers (he’ll next be seen in the third Knives Out film; does superstardom await?). His performance here is gritty, pensive and slyly funny, playing a lost soul of sorts who has a near-supernatural knack for finding ancient treasures buried beneath the soil, a talent one shouldn’t take lightly.

LA CHIMERA: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: The first thing we see here is Beniamina (Yile Vianello). It’s a hazy scene, like a memory – she’s a beautiful young woman in a crocheted dress, her hem is fraying, and she realizes the loose thread isn’t just snagged on something, but the end is underground, being pulled by what, we don’t know. Then Arthur (O’Connor) awakens on a train. He’s a bit frayed himself. Grubby, scruffy. Miserable and sickly. And he doesn’t smell the greatest. That doesn’t stop three young women from flirting with him – pheromones! – although they vamoose as soon as he violently lashes out at a salesman who mocks his odiferousness and tries to sell him a pair of socks. So it goes.

We soon learn that Arthur is an Englishman, a former archaeologist who’s fresh out of prison. He has a crew of eccentric friends here in Italy who help him pilfer lost antiquities from graves, then sell the wares on the black market. Apparently, he got busted for it. But he’s done his time and is right back at it, using a dowsing stick to sense what’s in the earth beneath his feet. When he intuits an X-marks-the-spot location, he gets faint and sickly and Rohrwacher flips the camera upside-down and then Arthur’s pals dig and sift through dirt and bones and pull out pots and bowls to sell to an unseen person known as Spartaco, who uses a veterinarian’s office as a front for this shady business. It’s a living? For some, maybe. For Arthur, it may be more of a calling, although it’s shrouded in ethical murk – not to mention the spiritual ick factor that comes with being, well, let’s not mince words here, a grave robber.

Did I mention Benianama is Arthur’s lost girlfriend? The tone of the opening dream sequence suggests they were very much in love. He visits Benianama’s mother Flora (Isabella Rossellini), who’s surrounded by her approximately six dozen daughters, who swarm like worker bees tending to their queen. In Flora’s care is her music student Italia (Carol Duarte), who’s more of a caretaker and housekeeper; Italia has two children she hides in her room so Flora won’t find them. Benianama is AWOL, and Flora believes she’ll return, although we get the sense that wherever she is isn’t a place anyone comes home from. There’s a spark of attraction between Arthur and Italia, although at first it’s mostly her smile that’s the culprit – our boy here is pretty consistently sullen, and internally tortured, haunted by the memory of Benianama and surely bothered by how he chooses to use his divining-rod “powers.” Developments! There are developments – leading to what, you’ll have to find out for yourself.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: If “magical realism” raises your hackles like it does mine – see: Beasts of the Southern Wild, Come Away, Wendy – let it be known that Rohrwacher’s methodology is less soppy and more in line with Life of Pi or Pan’s Labyrinth. Also, here’s a reminder that O’Connell’s other recent challenging-narrative movie, Challengers, is maybe the best movie of 2024. And that Duarte starred in Invisible Life, which is one of the best movies of 2019. 

Performance Worth Watching: You have to love how Rohrwacher plays with the dour-Englishman-surrounded-by-carpe-diem-Italians dynamic here. But Duarte’s presence truly lights up the screen; she’s the story’s purest soul, and its irresistible moral center.

Memorable Dialogue: A purposely decontextualized Spartaco line: “That’s what we are here for – to estimate the inestimable.” 

Sex and Skin: None! And I may be a little bummed about that!

Our Take: Be patient with La Chimera and its rewards will be great. Rohrwacher drops in the water and makes us work, immersing us in the setting – rural Italy, 1980ish by my estimation – and doling out the whos, whats, wheres and whens like a bit of a stingy tease. As for the whys, well, that’s up to you, and whether you read Arthur as a simple romantic sort with a broken heart, or someone far more mysterious and complicated. Either could be right and neither is wrong and that’s just the kind of film this is. 

Consider the symbolism of a man who may have lost some hope and purpose, digging up graves and climbing into them and searching for things. Arthur is surrounded by life, a rogue’s gallery of oddballs who find glee in their fringe lifestyles, and his life seems to have drained out of him. Half the movie goes by before he smiles, and wouldn’t you know, Italia – who you may have noticed is named after the literal country she lives in – inspires it. But what would she think about Arthur using his “gift” for unsavory means? Methinks you’ll find out.

So perhaps the film is Arthur working through grief and a crisis of conscience, although none of this is stated at all clearly. Rohrwacher indulges surrealist-absurdist flourishes at unexpected times, to great comedic effect. She also shows little interest in the usual tension-to-climax narrative bounds; the film’s most plainly crucial scene occurs with 30 minutes remaining in the run time, working toward something greater than the sum of the plot. A profound awakening, perhaps. Or a profound sleep. Either could be right and neither is wrong and that’s just the kind of improbably original, rousing, moving, fascinating film this is.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Time to mainline Rohrwacher’s back catalog.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.