Mimmo Calopresti co-wrote, directed, and stars in this drama about an architect's midlife meltdown. Once a smug Master of the Universe with a successful business and loving wife, child, and mistress, his life gradually falls apart after a near-death experience. An abrasive insistence that he's through tolerating life's hypocrisies costs him his friends and family and a new, ill-starred love affairs completely levels him. Joey Ramone's glorious cover of Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World" is a recurring theme, and the use of the song isn't completely ironic as the architect negotiates his personal purgatory. He also contemplates his own mortality, sometimes with the help of a long-dead friend, which adds a touch of Wings of Desire to the drama. The film's greatest strength is Calopresti, who charms even during the architect's most obnoxious moments.

Mimmo Calopresti directs and stars in the existential drama La Felicita Non Costa Niente (Happiness Costs Nothing). Calopresti stars as Sergio, a successful architect who is suddenly afflicted with a malaise. Haunted by the ghost of a co-worker, Sergio takes a mistress, offends his best friends, refuses to acknowledge guidance from his doctor, and eventually loses everything. He has a failed relationship with a woman named Sara (Francesca Neri). Only after losing it all does Sergio find something worthwhile in life. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide