Looking for an Echo

Find this film and check it out. It is worth the effort. I found it accidentally, while bored and berating the "so many channels, so much crap," syndrome.

I found myself singing along and smiling at the TV. Basically, it's the story of a the reunion of a rising Jersey "Do Wop" group whose career was killed by the rise of the Beatles. They are older, somewhat wiser and looking back at the hands life has dealt them. If you like 50's/60's music, good looking Italian guys or Jersey, you'll love this movie.

It's worth it just to see Armand Assante, shirtless. Hey, I'm old, not dead.

Check it out,you be glad you did.!

"A place to live in harmony, a place we almost found." Kenny Vance

In 1964, I used to hang around a bar in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn (where "Looking..." is set). I wasn't from the neighborhood, but they'd let me in even though I was but seventeen - the legal age at that time was eighteen. Most Fridays would find me at the bar, drinking and listening to the bar band play...and sing. It was obvious that the band guys could sing, but they were singing stuff like "Wooden Heart," maybe a Beatles tune or two - nothing that you could call doo-wop.

I began to bug the band with taunts like, "Hey, why doncha sing some harmony, man!?" and when they weren't performing I would talk to them a bit. They were local guys. One night after their set, after they'd heard one too many jibes from me, they dragged me into the men's room and sang some very nice harmony. They really hit some notes and I never taunted them again.

"Looking For An Echo" reminds me of those days. I found myself singing along to the harmony parts of "Please Say You Want Me," a song much-loved and covered in mid-1960s Brooklyn and Queens. And also, of course, that latter-day hymn to harmony, "Looking For An Echo."

A kind of musically oriented "Goodfellas" where the fellas really are good. A must-see for anyone who's ever sung a note of harmony.

This film missed its audience in theatrical release. It will be an entertaining rental and good watch on cable. A man's struggle to overcome his past brings him full circle. Great soundtrack by Kenny Vance and the Planotones.

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....

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.