A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Tea with Mussolini

Date Viewed: 5/22/99

Details:

Cher

Judi Dench

Joan Plowright

Maggie Smith

Lily Tomlin

Director: Franco Zeffirelli

Score: +

The Review: A period piece, in Florence, 1935: late in the interregnum between the two World Wars. It comprises four threads, carefully woven (as befits a film centered on a tailor's son). The ensemble work is quite good, and although not intentionally comedic, carries its share of good humor.

Over the opening titles we are introduced to a bevy of quirky English residents who have, over the years, decided to settle in Florence because of its art and its ambiance. At the group's center is Maggie Smith as the outspoken widow of the ambassador to Italy -- orbited (among others) by Judi Dench as an delightfully eccentric artist, and Joan Plowright as a secretary to a Florentine tailor. Such is the first thread, broadly played, but requiring no suspension of disbelief.

Second, is the education and coming of age of Luca, the young son of the Florentine tailor (played by two actors as he ages). His mother has died, and his father's wife is wont to taunt the boy with his bastardy. Prone to running away from school, he becomes adopted by Joan Plowright and her circle of the first thread, who begin to instill some English, both language and manners, and the love of art.

The third thread is the willowy American rich bitch and art collector played all too convincingly by Cher; an ex-Ziegfeld follies girl, she has made a (rather enriching) career of marrying old, and marrying frequently. She and Luca's mother were customer and client, as well as friends. Her sister (Lily Tomlin) is an archaeologist digging near Florence.

The last thread is the developing tension between Italy and England, and the inevitable war. The event named in the title occurs close to the beginning of the film -- "Why shouldn't Mussolini have an empire? All the best people have empires!" -- and provides an emotional grounding for Maggie Smith's persistence of vision (and folly). The protection extended her by Il Duce is short lived.

Other than the boy Luca and Maggie Smith's grandson (or is he a grand-nephew?), the men of this film are marginal. But this is not to say unimportant, from the viewpoint of plot. In the final analysis, it is clear that this is the ladies' film, a character study against the background of encroaching war. And a good film it is.

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