Movies about the conflict between adventure and "settling down" are legion—The Hangover, anyone?—but A Five Star Life is mercifully understated. Its central character is Irene, a complex and attractive woman past 40 who has a glamorous job: She travels undercover to inspect the luxury hotels of the world. While the settings are gorgeous, the work is rote, which is a good twist: Irene is not a war photographer, she is a worker, and goes about her task with professionalism. She has an independence that is stubborn and innate. The original Italian title of the film, Viaggio Sola, means I Travel Alone. Irene's sister has kids and a husband and, with increasing intensity, wants to know why Irene doesn't. Irene's best friend, a man, has impregnated a woman he barely knows and they've decided to keep the baby. Naturally, Irene finds herself at the heart of a Venn diagram of identity crises, and the usual dramatic possibilities are deployed. Will she and her best friend hook up and live happily ever after? Will she take an alluring stranger home for the night? The leaves on her plants at home die and fall on the floor, she's there so seldom, but does it matter? Margherita Buy is sensational as Irene, and director Maria Sole Tognazzi and her cowriters have created something smart, unpredictable, and about a woman. In cinema, that's a minor revolution. by Jen Graves