The Eight Mountains (2022) review

As a boy, Pietro (Lupo Barbiero) and his mother spent their summer vacation in Grana, a nearly abandoned village, where he became friends with Bruno (Cristiano Sassella) - many years later they reconnect, decide to build a house where they used to hike as kids, Bruno (Alessandro Borghi) expands it in order to make cheese, Pietro (Luca Marinelli) travels to Nepal and concentrates on being a writer ... and then Bruno's life falls apart.  While I appreciate the nature photography - the Italian Alps are gorgeous - it's severely lacking in other aspects: the connection between the leads is weak (they basically reunite at random), there are multiple attempts to "earn" audience sympathy (mostly concerning Pietro's late father) and the "philosophizing" (if you can even call it that) is banal.  Some slow-burn movies pull off the feat of entrancing (and almost hypnotizing) the viewer, bringing him or her into its own world - this achieves the exact opposite effect.