Missing Giorgia in the end (SPOILER)

Actually, Matteo flipped out before the scenario with Giorgia. He ditched the whole academic scholarly pursuit thing. Walked out on his professor. He flunked the exam. Even grabbing Giorgia and running away with her was part of it. I do however think that not being able to help her sent him deeper in retreat from the world.

I instantly thought of Mrs Dalloway in terms of the Giorgia/Matteo relationship. In Mrs Dalloway, Mrs Dalloway's story is paralleled with that of a shell shocked and suicidal WWI veteran. Both are unhappy and both are suicidal (although, Mrs Dalloway's suicidal tendencies are much more under the surface). Anyhow, the they never meet, but Mrs Dalloway eventually hears that the soldier has killed himself by diving out the window of his psychiatrist's office and impaling himself on the spiked fence bellow. While she never knew him, realizing that someone so young would throw his life away (which she reads as a defiant act to preserve his happiness) somehow gives her the strength to overcome her own suicidal tendencies and discover a renewed zest for life (whether it will last, however, and whether or not MRs Dalloway will ultimately once again succumb to her own depression is left open to interpretation as the book ends).

Anyways, I see Giorgia and MAtteo as having a similar parallel connection. They are both obviously mentally ill (or arguably anyway, as I think one could make the case that Mattaeo's act is entirely sane, while the rest of society has gone insane), even if Matteo's illness is kept under the wraps. Like the soldier in the novel, Matteo seems to adhere so rigidly to a code of honor in the film that he cannot sacrifice his ideals of justice (in the face of the corruption of the police department) so he kills himself. It's only after Matteo kills himself that Giorgia begins to inquire about his girlfriend, begins to talk, leaves the mental institute, and eventually gets her own apartment. They are obviously connected as characters (he is the one who eventually stole her from the institute after all, and it's meeting with her that ultimately makes him to decide to join the police force) so I think his death had a lot to do with her recovery.

Of course, I don't think the film explores this link between the characters much, which I ultimately found to be kind of disappointing and unsatisfying. But the more I think about it, the more their actions make sense (even if I wish the film had dealt a bit more with them as characters than it did with Nicola).