Antony and the Johnsons' My Lady Story, used on the soundtrack to top and tail this Italian movie, gives an accurate hint to the contents: stylish on the surface, grotesque and disturbing in subject matter.

Paolo Sorrentino's film is shot with great imagination and sophistication, and is not afraid to do the occasional whirling 360-degree pan, to good effect. But his central character is a grotesque moneylender, who scuttles about like a reptile, looks like a cross between Shylock and Danny de Vito (he still lives with a mother who resembles the latter's matriarch in Throw Momma from the Train) and confers on himself the title "Geremia Heart-of-Gold" as if he's a local benefactor. We have seen in the film's startling opening shot - a nun buried up to her neck on a beach as the tide comes in - what may happen to defaulters.

Luigi Angelillo is marvellous in the lead role as his infatuation with the local beauty queen propels him towards what may be his comeuppance. The acting is fine all round, though the plot, well worked for much of the film, loses credibility in the latter stages.