Para Roseanna

This film is one of those wonderful hidden gems that restore your faith in both film making and storytelling.The opening premise is that a mans'wife is soon to die from an incurable disease and that her last wish is to be buried in the village church graveyard. Unfortunately there is just one plot left!

Naturally there are a number of other villagers even closer to deaths' door.The husband, Marcello,is brilliantly played by Jean Reno. He delivers a virtuoso performance which carries the film dashing around saving the lives of other villagers in order that his wife can secure the last plot! Part romantic comedy, part farce, part love story, part tragedy, this superbly crafted tale had me laughing and holding back a tear in equal measure.

The farce scenes rival Feydeau at his best in the likes of 'Hotel Paradiso', slapstick with style. Yet Reno as Marcelo, ably assisted by his comic "sraight" partner, Mercedes Ruehl as his wife Roseanna, also produces a pathos for the tragic circumstances which underscore his credentials as a very fine actor.Unmissable. A real treat.

I was ready to turn it off but my wife wanted to see it. I'm glad she did. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, touching, funny when it needed to be. And yet another good movie with Jean Reno.

I absolutely loved this film. It's an unpromising subject - a man with a dying wife - but the excellent Jean Reno gives such a compelling performance that you cannot help but be sucked into the story. It is funny, moving, wonderful, beautifully acted and superbly filmed. And best of all it is good, clean entertainnment. Director Paul Weiland is sufficiently confident in his cast, his screenplay and his abilities that the story is allowed to take centre stage. There is nothing gratuitous, nothing formulaic about it Roseanna's Grave, it is a film of the old school: honest and genuinely entertaining.

Jean Reno is one very appealing and versatile actor, and here he's surrounded by attractive and loving women (as is probable in his off-the-set life). The setting is Italy so rural, the VCR tape should come with it's own bottle of Chianti. And, there's a clever ending which puts a neat exclamation mark to the story's moral. Probably filmed in Italian as well as the English version available in the USA.

The acting is superb, the story line strange and the experience a treasure. Funny, serious, surprising. The entire package is rolled up into a neat package you won't forget for a long time. I was so enchanted by HIS acting I was halfway through the movie before I realized how fine SHE was. Well worth anyone's time.