TEA WITH MUSSOLINI (MGM) Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
Like a story Grandma might tell about days gone by, "Tea With Mussolini" takes its time to unfold and never leads to any great earthshattering truths, but it's so quietly charming and engagingly performed only the most callous viewers will tune out. Based on the early chapters of director Franco Zeffirelli's autobiography, "Tea" is set in the Italy of the 1930s and 1940s, a coming-of-age tale that's more interested in its young hero's environment and influences than in his adjustment to adulthood. Luca, played by Charlie Lucas as a child and Baird Wallace as a teen, is a young Italian without a family, the product of a brief liaison between a clothing tycoon and his mistress. When the father's secretary and translator Mary (Joan Plowright) can no longer stand seeing Luca being hidden away in a church-run orphanage she agrees to look after him, enlisting the aid of her fellow "scorpioni," feisty Englishwomen who have settled in Florence to bask in the culture and seemingly endless sunshine. "There are no illegitimate children in this world," Mary insists. "Only illegitimate parents." So Luca becomes the surrogate son of the saintly Mary, the spirited painter and would-be bohemian Arabella (Judi Dench) and the high-handed Hester (Maggie Smith), a consummate snob who truly believes Fascist leader Mussolini is a friend of hers since she's the widow of a British ambassador. Outside this circle but destined to become a major force in Luca's life is Elsa (Cher), a cheerfully brash American with a taste for modern art, elderly millionaires and youthful lovers. When her latest husband feigns a heart attack to halt another one of her spending sprees, Elsa complains to her pal Georgy (Lily Tomlin) that "he's too cheap to slip a poor girl a little Picasso." Though "Tea" doesn't have much in the way of a linear plot, the theme of making sacrifices in the name of love is woven throughout its various anecdotes. There's also a hint of "Cabaret" in the way the women ignore the early signs of trouble in the late 1930s -- Fascist attacks on citizens, the burning of foreign flags, mandatory registration of Jews, etc. -- in the hope that soon everything will be back to normal and their leisurely lives can begin again. Of course, that is not meant to be; as Hester learns, just because one has taken tea with Mussolini does not mean you're under Il Duce's protection. Plowright, Smith and Tomlin play to type quite effectively, while Dench brings a subtle layer of pathos to Arabella, who's better at protecting other people's masterpieces than she is at creating her own. Cher, in a role ideally suited to her natural flamboyance, sparkles. In Elsa's most telling moment, she's asked by one of her young Italian conquests if all American women are as exciting as she is. "Alas," she sighes. "No." You can say that again. James Sanford
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews