Grazia, the main character in Respiro, behaves too erratically for the inhabitants of Lampedusa, an Italian island near Sicily. She's free-spirited and difficult to understand. What should be done about her? Sending this bi-polar mother of three to Milan for treatment seems the best answer. But not to Grazia. Refusing to leave her island home, she develops a plan of her own and recruits her favorite son to help make it succeed. With luscious Valeria Golino portraying Grazia and Lampedusa playing itself, Respiro emerges as a visual triumph for filmmaker Emanuele Crialese.

No wonder Grazia wants to stay in Lampedusa. Blue shimmering waters caress its sun-drenched shores, and there are mysterious caves to explore. A woman more at home with Nature than with society, Grazia is as unpredictable and untamed as the sea. Unfortunately, her behavior becomes more and more scandalous as well as dangerous -- even to the creatures she loves.

Deciding not to emphasize the colorful island landscape, director Crialese (Once We Were Strangers) paints Respiro with muted hues, giving many scenes a faded-by-the-sun look. He blends this artistic style with magical realism. "I didn't want to make a realist or naturalist film," he explains. "I wanted to maintain a fable or legend-like tone." To help accomplish his goal, Crialese minimized dialogue and made sure the characters used gestures and expressions that reflected "their down-to-earth nature, thoughts and intentions."

No one captured those gestures and expressions more impressively than Golino. Although speaking very little, she manages to project a childlike sense of wonder and enchantment -- as well as Grazia's frustrations -- in the peak performance of her career. Here's an actress who can be both funny (Hot Shots) and dramatic (Frida) -- an important ability that paid off in this key role. Most other cast members are not professional actors, but they lend Golino fine support, especially Francesco Casisa as Grazia's affectionate and co-conspiring young son.

We've seen movies about outcast women before. Remember Juliette Binoche's Vianne in Chocolat? Grazia, however, is not as unselfish as the mysterious Vianne. Although filmmaker Criase based his depiction of Grazia on an island legend, she seems more real than a woman who dispenses "chocolate cures" for everyone's ills but her own. And it's easier to identify with a woman who wants to stay put than with one who moves from place to place. Vianne is the wind -- Grazia is the sea. 

An imperfect ending fails to mar Respiro's beauty -- just as Grazia's faults cannot destroy her spirit.

(Released by Sony Pictures Classics and rated "PG-13" for nudity and thematic elements.)