‘The Big Fake’ (2026) Netflix Movie Review - Stefano Lodovichi's Faux Filmmaking

The only thought that came to my mind when I finished watching The Big Fake (Il Falsario) was this: Why did director Stefano Lodovichi even bother making this film? He doesn't seem interested in his characters, in the Rome he depicts, or in the life of the con artist Antonio Chichiarelli, who inspired it. Does Lodovichi—or the writers Lorenzo Bagnatori and Sandro Petraglia—see Toni (Pietro Castellitto), the con artist, as a superhero with a Spider–Man–like Spidey sense (he gets tingling sensations at the back of his neck), or as a hungry soul drifting through the criminal underworld of 1970s Rome? You know a movie has ended up doing a terrible job when, by its end, you still feel as if you have learned nothing significant about the protagonist—his world, his career, his relationships. I had to go to Wikipedia to find out more about Antonio's history. Antonio, for instance, lost his mother in 1951, and before 1960, his two brothers also died. I don't think Toni ever talks about his mother or siblings in The Big Fake. Instead, he's provided with two best friends: one is a member of the Red Brigades, while the other is a priest.

For the filmmakers, this is all the detail that seems to matter about Toni's buddies. What's more, they don't bother fleshing out any of the relationships. The friends are friends simply because the movie needs them to be to fulfill the demands of the script. The pal who's part of the Red Brigades is meant to introduce some conflict into Toni's life as Toni navigates between groups aligned with the far left and the far right (well, just far right, given his friend is his only contact with the Red Brigades). The Big Fake, though, never brings this conflict to the surface. I'm not even sure the filmmakers realize that this setup could have produced an internal clash within Toni. Then there's the priest, who's clearly attracted to Toni's girlfriend, Donata (Giulia Michelini), and to Toni's luxurious life. But again, these envious feelings exist only in one or two brief shots and remain purely theoretical. Nothing dramatic ever comes out of them. Was The Big Fake initially conceived as a series? Given the swiftness with which names like Fabrizio Ferracane, Edoardo Pesce, and Aurora Giovinazzo enter and exit, it feels as if large portions of their material were cut when the story was condensed into a feature film.

The whole project, then, comes across less as a fully realized work of cinema than as an incurious crash course. If you have zero knowledge of Rome's political climate in the 1970s, you won't come away from this film any better informed. It's entirely possible you'll have to head to Wikipedia just to understand who the Red Brigades were and what their motive was. Toni's arc—his rise and fall—is also presented without any sense of thrill. If The Big Fake were a book, Lodovichi would merely skim through its pages. If it were an art exhibition, he would glance at the paintings in a hurry. He has no time for details and makes no real attempt to dramatize anything. There is, alas, no reason for anyone to waste their precious one hour and fifty minutes on something like this. The Big Fake might as well be a fake film—a limp copy of a biopic. Toni's forgeries are at least admirable and convincing. The same cannot be said about Lodovichi's faux filmmaking.

Final Score- [1/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times