Made in Italy

This is the first major film of English actor James D'Arcy who wrote and directed it, a very nice first film. Liam Neason and his real son Michael Richardson play a father and son whose troubled relationship goes back to the death of the wife and mother of the main characters. It's set in beautiful Tuscany in Italy.

Michael Richardson from the Neason-Richardson-Redgrave dynasty has acting in the blood and does a good job along with the ever great Liam Neason. Other standouts are Lindsey Duncan and Julian Ovenden who is a wonderful singer and actor.

So many films and TV series now are dominated by: sci-fi, horror, thriller, fantasy, animation, paranormal, rom-com, sit-com, reality...and a lot of people have absolutely no interest in them. I'd rather read a book, surf the internet, watch sports...than that stuff.

This is a nice little film especially for those of us still in semi-quarantine.

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.

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.

This was so beautiful, slow, unremarkable, simple, plain, absolutely lovely for anyone who enjoys what's real for those descriptions couldn't describe real life more. Well worth the watch.

...You have no heart. This is a sweet story of father and son, and I'm sure as they filmed there were moments Liam Neeson and his son acted from real emotion after losing their wife/mother. Was it predictable, a little, but who cares. I enjoyed it very much and the scenery was bellissimo!!