Sposa in rosso (2022)

Roberta and Leòn are two financially precarious forty-somethings who stage a fake wedding to pocket the money from the guests. The two protagonists happen to meet on a bus in Malta when her waters break. She is taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she gives birth to a baby boy. Leòn, an unemployed war correspondent, accepts Roberta’s proposal, and they set off together for Puglia, where they organize a fake wedding with the aim of splitting the money the guests will put in envelopes for the newlyweds, since Roberta’s family is very wealthy and well known in Puglia. Roberta’s brother tries to sabotage the wedding for his own interests. On the night before the fake wedding, the two protagonists spend a night together, and the next morning he declares his feelings for her, but she rejects him and insists on the fake wedding, to be officiated by a fake priest, a friend of Leòn’s. Roberta’s brother locks the fake priest in a shed, so the wedding is officiated by the village parish priest and is legally valid. When they return to Malta, however, Leon leaves, giving Roberta all the envelopes the guests had presented them with on their wedding day. A year later, Leòn launches his first successful novel, titled *Bride in Red*. Roberta approaches the author to ask him to sign a copy of the novel, and in the dedication he writes, “TO MY WIFE.” The two go for a walk together by the sea, and Roberta tells him that she especially loved the novel’s ending. She rereads its final line to him—“We had all the time in the world to make things right”—then asks him if they still do. He smiles at her, and they set off together toward the Vite Parallele kiosk.