A heart-warming father son story set in beautiful Tuscany, Italy, starring Liam Neeson and his real-life son and actor Micheál Richardson, trying to mend a strained relationship as they fix up an old home, should be a no-brainer as an easy, humorous yet touching choice for most audience members. Sadly, MADE IN ITALY plays to predictable cliches, drawing out groan-inducing choices scene after scene.
The father and son duo set out on a road trip to visit and hopefully sell their rundown property sitting atop a prime location in gorgeous Tuscany. Jack (Richardson), wants his cut to buy an art gallery owned by his ex-wife. Robert (Neeson) an artist who hasn’t worked in years, isn’t sure he wants to sell. But the two set out to clean and renovate their old home, which works metaphorically as they clean and renovate their relationship.
Look, I understand this isn’t a new concept, and I’m okay with that. In fact, that synopsis is part of the reason I was attracted to seeing the film. The problem is MADE IN ITALY fails to bring new life to the genre or find emotional beats that can reach the audience. As a drama, MADE IN ITALY never pulls at the heart strings enough to warrant any emotional resonance. As a comedy, MADE IN ITALY manages to produce a few chuckles, but they are few and far between. Unfortunately, I have to place the blame squarely on writer/director James D’Arcy. This is a classic case of playing everything so safe and middle road that it falls into a pit of ordinary and predictable.
Father and son don’t get along. Son heads out into town. Son meets feisty, no nonsense Italian girl who runs the best Italian restaurant in town. They have a “she pushes him in water, he pulls her into water, they laugh, they kiss” scene that is eye-covering embarrassing because of the sheer amount of times this scene has been played out since love stories have been in existence.
I really wanted to like this movie. And whether it be “don’t mess with my family” TAKEN Liam or tender-hearted, son loving LOVE ACTUALLY Liam, I adore me all forms of Neeses Pieces (credit Key and Peele for that tasty name). His son Micheál Richardson is also wonderful. While I have not caught his work in last year’s Vox Lux, Richardson was perfectly believable as the distraught and neglected adult son to Neeson. This simply wasn’t the right vehicle to place him in the leading role. Did I mention the characters lost their wife and mother to a car accident, similarly in the way the two actors lost their real life wife and mother, actress Natasha Richardson, to a skiing accident in 2009? The idea of acting out such a close subject is devastating. And on some level, perhaps morbidly, but with good intentions, I’m guessing audiences are hoping to see that pain and catharsis come through on the screen.
2001’s LIFE AS A HOUSE starring Kevin Kline and Hayden Christensen has similar story and themes as a father and son with a rocky relationship build a house over one summer. And even with some of it’s cheese, it has so many more laughs and still manages to hit those emotional chords. For the record, I highly recommend LIFE AS A HOUSE.
I wish I could recommend MADE IN ITALY. But the best thing going for it is simply that it stars the father and son duo Neeson and Richardson, and that it has an exquisite location. Maybe if you treat it like you caught it rummaging through whatever streaming provider you currently own one bored evening, MADE IN ITALY might elevate to charmingly passable… Might.
