MADE IN ITALY – A Review by Hollywood Hernandez
Made in Italy is a very different kind of movie for Liam Neeson. First, he doesn’t kill anyone in the movie, instead he plays a very tenderhearted character who is estranged from his son after losing his wife in a car accident. His son in the movie is played by his real-life son, Micheál Richardson, his child with actress Natasha Richardson. (Natasha died after a skiing accident.)
While there is a great similarity to Neeson’s real life, he says it is not based on reality. After seeing the script, he saw the cast as characters who would be interesting to portray. In the movie, the father and son try to mend their relationship after being estranged for a long time.
Robert is an artist living in London and Jack runs an art gallery in London. The son, who is getting divorced, desperately needs money to keep the gallery open. He convinces his father to travel to Tuscany where they have a house inherited from the wife and mother.
The two men spend time renovating the old house which has been unlived in for the past twenty years. They meet with a realtor who agrees to sell the house if they will make the needed repairs. In Tuscany, Jack meets a divorced restaurant owner, and the two start as friends but end up as a couple after spending time in the Tuscan landside.
The movie is a romantic comedy with a lot of emotion as the father and son try to get over years of grief losing their wife and mother. Jack ends up finding artwork that he did of his mother and the two start to mend fences as they share their memories, some sad and some funny.
The ending is all tied up with a bow and you end up with a very sad and funny drama about two men who learn to forgive. The movie is rated R and lasts 1 hour and 43 minutes. You can find it on Amazon and other on-demand services for about $7.00.
On my “Hollywood Popcorn Scale” I rate Made in Italy a JUMBO.
