Artifices & Spaghetti

I really liked the movie. It was funny and warm with a lot of heart. Giancarlo Giannini, Stanley Tucci and Bridget Fonda as well as the supporting cast were terrific. A great unexpected ending, beautifully shot and a feel good movie. Definitely recommend it. I give it a 10!

This is a shockingly badly made movie! There are dozens of continuity errors, glaring ones, throughout. Could it be that nobody cared, not the director, not the editor, not even the continuity person (if there was one)?

Of the many instances here is just one example: Bridget Fonda goes out on a date. As she leaves with the man she is wearing a dress and her hair is styled a certain way. When they are eating in the restaurant she is wearing a radically different dress of a different style and color and her hair is completely redone.

Other such errors abound in profusion. I wonder how such a stellar cast of great actors, real stars, could be assembled and then such a careless effort put in by the filmmakers. It defeats the film. Great actors sound like they are just saying lines. Even Stanley Tucci looks like he is just making faces when he tries to put spirit or emotion into his dialogue. I expected this to be a good movie, and to like it a lot. Instead it took an effort to watch it to the oh-too-predictable end, which was itself very rushed and riddled with plot holes.

C'mon. Aren't you glad to see a movie about Italians and Italian-Americans that's got absolutely nothing to do with the mafia, vendettas or spaghetti? This little piece is a wonderful and entertaining film about fireworks, family, food, life, death, deceit, trauma, pride and, of course, love. If you know Italians as well as I do, you'll recognize that this is all in a day's work. Stereotypes aside, they shook out the box on this one with Talia Coppola Shire, Gaincarlo Giannini, Tony DeSando and the uncompilable Anamaria Alberghetti. This latter is one year older than I am and still looks like a million dollars plus interest. Then there's Fonda the younger and Tucci. Yes, Tucci, who steals every scene he's in ala Peter Sellers. Tucci with the great eyes and great face. What could be a cheesy, maudlin, drippingly sentimental story moves quickly because of the chemistry of these people who play wonderfully off of each other and keep you amused with the same Mediterranean hyperbole you saw in Moonstruck, My Cousin Vinny, The Rose Tattoo and My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Now, we all know that every Italian family does not go into a state of crisis every day but the complexity of Italian familial relations does give us food for thought in delightful comedies such as this one.

This movie is very pretty to look at, with terrific editing and soundtrack. The story is warm and sweet, but not the least bit treacley. The very first scene immediately draws you into what's to come. A comforting "family is what it's all about" moral with a wonderfully awkward love story.

30 January 2006. The decent, if not great or awesome, romantic comedy has a solid Italian flavor with Stanley Tucci with a so-so Italian accent and Bridget Fonda as the recently spurred and widowed wife that come together in this fireworks movie that contains an interesting (though not compelling) look at the explosive product storyline. Except for a confusing and disjointed wet piece of the letter that Bridget Fonda discovers though it is predictably tied up by the end, this is an average comedy movie that is light-weight but entertaining, worth a DVD rental price over the weekend with that special one. Six out of Ten Stars.