Love's Brother

We saw this movie at the Palace Norton Cinema, quite appropriate since it is a movie about Italian culture.

It is about two close brothers, one is painfully socially inept but sweet, and the other is the opposite. This is set in Victoria, Australia, in the olden days, so there are plenty of good old costumes. Its a humourous plot, the brothers are involved with two girls, one fresh of the boat (literally because thats how they travel back then) from Italy, and another who has been Aussiefied. Throughout the movie we see relationships between them break and build.

In the movie is the first time I've heard of the rule of having the eldest sibling married before the younger ones, so I'm not sure if thats Italian culture. This movie also reinforced my view that mail-order brides or arranged marriages will never work. There is an expresso machine and lots of people drinking coffee in the movie, so make sure you bring a nice cup of coffee into the movie so you don't feel left out.

A thoughtful movie, exploring love and culturally identity. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Forgive me for not being one of those cinema buffs who can articulate the many problems that they observe in films but I'm just a viewer who loves sweet films about interesting, human topics rather than the junk shoveled out by the big Hollywood studios. I was enchanted by this film and I love our film industry and the products of that industry.

Our films are so believable and human-centred as opposed to the make believe product from across the Pacific. I recently watched "To be and to Have" and was captivated by it's beauty and innocence-a documentary about a rural French teacher and his class of primary kids. I mention this fabulous film because it was a member of a genre of "slice of life" films like "Loves' Brother"-I was as captivated by this beautiful Australian as I had been by the beautiful French film.

I loved looking at fifties, rural small town life; I loved watching the difficulties of young foreign born people trying to overcome problems of distance and culture and I, as opposed to others, was completely taken by the huge difficulties of connecting. I know, in the dying years of last century, people who endured not dissimilar marriage situations. I thought the film was exceedingly sensitively worked and I have no complaints about the movie in any way.

If you enjoy the genre of human development then this fabulous little film is for you. Take it as it is-don't read your own values into a time and place far removed from today.

an unconventional take on an Italian romance story. by no means is this film in the league of titanic for out and out romance, but romance is definitely what this film is about. it becomes obvious that the shy brother is much more comfortable with the other brothers girlfriend, and the confident brother is much more in love with the mail order bride. it has a great feel to it this film, the locations are great, i never thought of Australia to be so picturesque, but this film is set in the 1950's and the attitudes of people are reflected in that, its kind of quaint, a more innocent age than we live in today perhaps? i am glad i got to see this film, i don't think this film would appeal to people who are not romantic, its an interesting yet unconventional love story which i found quite enjoyable.

There's a first time for everything, including directing a movie, and accomplished Australian scriptwriter (`Shine') Jan Sardi has not disgraced himself here. The plotline is corny (wrong brother's photo sent in marriage broking operation) and the approach stickily sentimental but things are saved by some good casting, quality acting and fine cinematography.

As Angelo, the shyer brother who is looking for a bride from Italy, Giovanni Ribisi (last seen as the doltish husband in `Lost in Translation') combines the intensity of B A Santamaria with a remarkable amount of diffidence. Adam Garcia, hitherto mainly a song and dance man, plays the less screwed up younger brother Gino with abundant artless charm, and they combine very well to give us a picture of two very different but very devoted people. Rosetta the mail order bride, (Amelia Warner) is very beautiful and doesn't say a great deal which adds to her charm of course. There are also some strong performances from supporting players. Silvia de Santis, hair dyed blonde, is very effective as Gino's girlfriend Connie, and John Bluthal does an Italian version of his loveable old man persona. Eleanor Bron has a brief role as the marriage broker – no more improbable than an Italian siren from Liverpool (where Amelia Warner hails from). It was also worth the price of admission to see Barry Otto as a Catholic Priest blessing a newly installed espresso machine.

Andrew Lesnie, responsible for the cinematography in the Lord of the Rings series, gives us one or two unusual camera angles, but by and large keeps things very pretty. He apparently looked at `Il Postino' to get some pointers on how to shoot an `Italian' movie. (That film was actually directed by an Englishman, Michael Radford.) Daylesford, Victoria, and its surrounds are shown to their advantage, certainly more so than the Italian village used for Rosetta's home town. The Italians shown here who migrated to Australia are a jolly lot; most of them seem to think Australia is heaven compared to Italy. The film is set circa 1958 but even 40 years later it looks like they made the right decision. They certainly did wonders for Australian coffee drinking.

My husband saw this movie several years ago while on a plane bound for Germany. He has been talking about it ever since and finally tracked it down (Amazon.com), so that he could share it with me. Here in the U.S., the DVD format for this particular movie doesn't work on our DVD players, but we were able to change the DVD region setting in Device Manager on our computer and watch the DVD via laptop (you can only change this setting 4 or 5 times). I am so glad he finally found this movie! It is a real gem - sweet, innocent, and truly entertaining. It is a feast for the eyes as well as the soul. Another reviewer mentioned that Australian movies seem to get a bad rap, often being overlooked. How unfortunate! We would be thrilled if Hollywood would increase production of this type of film. I know other movies written by Jan Sardi have been available here in the States. I don't know why this one is not. That is truly a shame; so many people here are missing a great movie. If you're addicted to big-action crash 'em up, shoot 'em up, sexually explicit, adolescent toilet humor type movies, then this one probably won't appeal to you. However, if, like us, you enjoy gentle, heartwarming upbeat story lines with beautiful cinematography, acting, scenery and music, then be sure to watch this movie. It may even be "il destino"!