Looking for an Echo

This is truly a very enjoyable movie and though different from other films Armand Assante has done, he did great job. However, Edoardo Ballerini is my reason for watching it again & again. He not only demonstrated unique acting ability as Tony, but feel certain he will soon get the recognition he deserves. I for one, will be looking forward to other Edoardo films.

While channel surfing I stumbled on this movie and now I own it. I don't buy many movies but this is one I had to have. A perfect movie to put on when it's one of those rainy days when you just want to relax. The music draws you in and you find you want more music and less talking. Being a fan of Armand Assante I found this one of his best. The love his character had for his children was so evident and you knew all he wanted was their happiness. And then there was Edoardo Ballerini. Great eye candy and if that was his voice - can't wait to buy his CD's. This is one of those movies that makes you wish for the days when music made you swoon....

The movie was on cable, I didn't choose it on purpose... but I stood there in the middle of the living room thinking "oh my god... what is this?" The harmonies were amazing... I don't like oldies as a rule--I love soul, r&b, hip hop, even heavy metal--but I had to see this movie again. Then, I had to have it. It's just one of those. I find myself dragging my kid's keyboard out of the back room, and sitting in front of the TV during Anthony's acoustic version of Vinnie's song, playing it over and over and over, thinking to myself "this is so simple and perfect, I can play this... I can sing this..." but there is something magical about the song, the performance... that just can't be captured in real life... it's not a pasteurized, homogenized, production version either... I can't explain it. You have to see it. *whew*

I grew up in the Metro New York area during the do wop period in rock and roll so I know the music well. I've also been acquainted with some "one hit wonders" living in serene obscurity. I discovered I was living next door to the lead singer of a do wop group with a very big hit record for fifteen years only after another neighbor mentioned it to me in passing.

This small budget movie was written, directed and acted by people who know the territory. The cast is uniformly excellent with Armand Assante, Diane Venora, Edoardo Ballerini, Christy Carlson Romano and Joe Grifaci leading the way.

Shot on locations around Brooklyn's Sheepshead Bay and Bay Ridge in Diners, Taverns, Wedding Halls and under the Verrazano Bridge, the film captures the sense of the Italian Irish Brooklyn that predominated in the late 50's and early 60's and lives on today in small enclaves.

Kenny Vance from Jay and the Americans wrote the title song and did the vocals for "Vinnie". A small quibble about the music: the big hit from the fictional Vinnie and the Dreamers was "This I Swear", a bona fide hit for the real life "Skyliners". It might have worked better if they had picked a more obscure song from that era.

One notable attribute about the "one hit wonder" from the 50's and 60's that I personally know and the way he is accurately portrayed by Armand Assante is how easily they took their "15 minutes of fame" and moved on to mundane lives as cops, teachers, bartenders, etc. The groups of that era were financially ripped off and rarely got any significant money. This is a stark contrast to today's reality show contestants who get agents and linger on the fringes as long as they can.

Bottom line: this movie was made by people who cared.

I totally agree with what the only other reviewer of this film has commented. Indeed, the lack of comments, though no fault of the film itself, is a comment on its own. Maybe the distributors of this film went somewhere awry while marketing it, because I thought it was a really decent film, with some good acting that would have certainly garnered more audience, not to mention, appreciation. Armand Assante seemed as much at home in his character as if he had always been a chart-topping singer(albeit a one-hit wonder) in his heydays. Credit also goes to the director Martin Davidson who, I can say, managed convincingly to create the whole set-up - Vince, his fellow-crooners and their issues, Vince and his daughter and her evident problem and Vince and his son Anthony and the conflict therein. I have long admired Davidson's 1989 film 'Heart of Dixie'. It had some marvelous performances by Ally Sheedy and Treat Williams and the 1960s American South was evoked in all its pathetic beauty.

The music of this film is certainly one of its attractions. Little snippets of songs, apparently sung by Vinnie and the Dreamers are played at the right moments to enhance the film's aura. Diane Venora's performance was aptly charged. And so was Edoardo Ballerini's. His scene with Assante in the hospital where the latter breaks down is the emotional tear-point of the film(both for the characters and the audience). The other high point is of course Anthony's solo of 'This I Swear'. If that was Ballerini's own voice up there, then boy, he should think of a probable career switch! The only other film I've seen Edoardo in is in the zany John Leguizamo-starrer 'The Pest' in which he convincingly put on a German accent(adding much to the humor of the film) to play Himmel, the "sissy" son of a crazed neo-Nazi! He's an actor of great potential - which I hope is fittingly explored through many other good roles. With its music, a cast that has rendered good performances and a feel-good ending, 'Looking For an Echo' is definitely worth a watch.