Irene (Margherita Buy) is a secret auditor who tours 5-star hotels around the world verifying if she meets the standards according to that rating. Of course, to fulfill this function she registers as a common traveler without revealing her condition, and she only makes it express at the time of check-out.
A Five Star Life is a kind and interesting dramatic comedy by Maria Sole Tognazzi about what this apparently ideal job implies for Irene: being permanently on the road and the impossibility of establishing stable relationships and starting a family, this impossibility being also a choice.
Irene’s closest affections are her friend Andrea (Stefano Accorsi), with whom she has an interesting relationship, and her sister Silvia (Fabrizzia Sacchi), married with two daughters, who as a woman who has started a family functions in some way as counterpart and mirror, but without falling into the obvious. The film sporadically dwells on them, especially in the role of the sister. The contrast between Irene’s “real” life and the one she leads in those expensive hotels is marked only at the right point, avoiding schematics.
It is interesting to accompany Irene on her tour of the luxurious hotels and to follow her in her meticulous and highly professional check of her benefits, in a task that, as she says, has overtones of espionage. Although there are very beautiful locations and the film makes us travel with the protagonist (and this is very much enjoyed in these times of confinement), she does not fall into the temptation of the tourist route with her postcards. Irene never stops recording and, ultimately, working. In addition, the cuts and ellipsis of the story contribute to prevent any tourist gluttony.
Margherita Buy gives us an extraordinary performance because of her naturalness, which she conquers us from minute one. She endorses the sobriety with which the film raises the conflicts of Irene, a beautiful and elegant woman, quite sure of what she wants, but not exempt from rethinking herself in certain situations, without recharging the ink. This tone is not a limitation but the achievement of a film that avoids sentences and morals.
