Made in Italy

I have only seen Neeson in action films so I was curious to see how he would fare in a comedy drama. It was nice to see him stretch a little bit in this film and having his son along his side was interesting to watch. Generally, I am not a fan of comedies, but I did enjoyed some of the very few lines and goofs that made me chuckled loudly. It's the onscreen relationship between father and son that I enjoyed the most. A decent 6 stars.

First off this movie has the novelty of Micheál Richardson, the lead character as Jack, is the real life son of Liam Neeson who plays his father, Robert. The story involves the accidental death of his mother when he was much younger, in real life the actor's mother, Natasha Richardson, died from an accident when he was quite young.

So Jack is married and working as the director of an art gallery his in-laws own. He is in the process of divorce and is told the gallery is being sold. He wants to keep his job and the only way to do that is to buy the gallery.

When his mother died the valuable home on a nice property in Tuscany is left to husband and son, a 50-50 split. So Jack gets his dad to go with him to Italy so that they can sell the home, split the profits, and Jack can buy the gallery.

Nothing works as planned, the property had been neglected so long it was in a sad state of repairs, basically unsellable in that condition. So part of the story is their getting it fixed up properly. In the process dad meets the nice real estate lady, just moved there from England. And Jack meets a local chef with an 8-yr-old daughter.

All in all this is a very nice movie, overall it is about son and dad mending relationships and finally coming to grips with everything that was involved in mom's death.

My wife and I watched it at home on DVD from our public library.

I think this film is a great portrayal of a fractured father and son relationship, that heals when they finally confront their pains. I find it emotionally engaging.

As someone who loves Italy, Italian culture, speaks the language and always watches movies like this, I kind of expected more from it. It was indeed aesthetically pleasing, but the action was missing. I felt like the actors could've done it a bit better and the story could've had more added to it. But the shots of beautiful Tuscany and the house were more than enough for me. The relationship between father and son was not as much developed as I thought it would be, but it did make me cry in the end, with a nice conclusion. All in all, heartwarming and pleasant comedy/drama that you will enjoy, especially if you're dreaming of visiting or living in Tuscany!

A great, heartwarming film with the occasional comedic moment, but definitely not a comedy. A real change in typecast character for Liam Neeson too. And what can I say about the beautiful Tuscan views apart from absolutely amazing.