Film Review: ARMONY: Valerio Mastandrea is in Top Form in This Dramatic Character Study [Locarno 2026]

Armony Review

Armony (2026) Film Review from the 79th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie directed by Dario Albertini, written by Simone Ranucci and Dario Albertini and starring Valerio Mastandrea, Aurora Cherchi, Elena Lietti, Asia Argento, Ornella Muti and Nando Paone. 

Armony, directed by Dario Albertini, stars Valerio Mastandrea in the title role of a 55-year-old man, Armony, who must come to terms with his sister’s disappearance and try to help the six-year-old little girl who she left behind, which is his niece. That girl’s name is Carlotta (Aurora Cherchi), a little one who has a lot of personality and doesn’t quite grasp the gravity of the situation her uncle, Armony, becomes invested in over the course of the film. Mastandrea’s subtle performance is quite moving, as the viewer soon realizes that Armony could be in a very tough battle with the legal system, should he choose to try to take Carlotta in permanently.

This film opens with an interesting conversation between Armony and the sister. She’s in way over her head in terms of trying to raise Carlotta, and she may just have to place her faith in Armony, a truck driver, to help her get out of trouble by assisting her with raising the sweet and charismatic little girl that Carlotta is.

There are situations which are uncomfortable for Armony, namely that Carlotta needs a bath and she needs one now. He’s in no position to try to give a little girl a bath, so he enlists a neighbor to assist him. Furthermore, if Armony takes Carlotta to her school, people may talk, so he must get her safely to the bus stop every morning and keep a low profile. Not so easy.

Many scenes in Armony are authentically brought to life. The most intriguing scenes are late in the picture where Armony must take Carlotta with him on his truck run late at night in order to handle some business. He comes to a police inspection on the road, and must hide Carlotta from the authorities. This scene shows Armony’s flaws and his failed efforts to be a better influence on his niece than others may be.

This little niece of Armony’s is very spunky. She dances for a school production as a fellow town’s member embarrassingly cheers her on. Carlotta questions truck radios and wonders why truck drivers don’t just use phones to communicate. She asks a lot of questions and, usually, doesn’t get any answers she desires because she’s just a kid.

As you may have expected, a lot of this film rides on the performances of the pair who play the uncle and his niece. Mastandrea’s quietly effective performance drives the film as he must try to adopt Carlotta if the mother doesn’t come back into the picture, and some signs point to the idea that she may have run away permanently.

Cherchi’s dedicated performance is a solid one. Carlotta is understanding of Armony, and stands by him as he stands by her, hoping to help her live the best life she can under incredibly complex circumstances. If Mastandrea and Cherchi play off each other with a remarkable type of rapport, that’s due to the direction of the film, which never hits a false note as it unveils its complicated plot, which is a bit simplistic on the surface, but has many layers that help the movie progress gradually towards a moving conclusion.

Armony has a lot on its plate, thematically speaking. It could have been a great film, had the movie focused more on the lost sister or, perhaps, even showed her more throughout the film in a parallel series of scenes. Instead, what we have is a remarkably told character study focusing in on a man over the hump of middle age, trying his best to get by and help his niece thrive the only way he knows how to help her – by being earnest and diligent in his life choices except when the going gets really tough, which it does here.

There are a lot of dramatically intense moments integrated into Armony that make it ultra-realistic. It’s easy to expect the plot will take detours that could dampen the situation the film proposes significantly. Those would be a false set of expectations, though. Although the picture is a complex character study, it also never digs deeper than it has to in order to present a familial relationship with plenty of heart found in it, especially in the particular bond between the uncle and his niece.

Armony, as a film, hits a lot more than it misses the mark. Although nothing dramatically devastating happens at the end, lives are changed forever by the events that transpire throughout the picture, which works as an interesting piece of cinematic art. In the end, Armony has a lot going on, but it stops to acknowledge the unbreakable bond between family members who are there for one another when the going gets rough. This is a good picture that deserves the viewer’s undivided attention.

Rating: 7.5/10

Leave your thoughts on this Armony review and the film below in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons.

Readers seeking more Locarno Film Festival news can visit our Locarno Festival Page, our Film Festival Page, and our Film Festival Facebook Page.

Readers seeking more film reviews can visit our Movie Review Page, our Movie Review Twitter Page, and our Movie Review Facebook Page.

Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Mobile App, Google News, Apple News, Feedly, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Reddit, Telegram, Mastodon, Flipboard, Bluesky, and Threads.