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| Directed by Franco Zeffirelli; Starring Cher, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin, Baird Wallace, Massimo Ghini, Paolo Chequer, Tessa Pritchard, Mino Bellei, and Claudio Spadaro |
As much as I respect Franco Zeffirelli, I cannot keep from admitting that he has lost some of his touch over the years. Sure it’s not like Francis Ford Coppola doing Jack after The Godfather Part III, but going from classics like 1968’s Romeo and Juliet and 1967’s The Taming of the Shrew to more toned down (and more listless) takes on Hamlet in 1990 and Jane Eyre in 1996 and now Tea with Mussolini are pretty bad plummets. Don’t get me wrong, I actually liked his Hamlet somewhat, but comparing it to The Taming of the Shrew is like comparing Bio-Dome to Citizen Kane.
I think that his main problem in Tea with Mussolini is in the storyline. Sure I hear that it was somewhat autobiographical and close to his heart, but there just is not really that much material from his memories for a feature film (plus I’ve never considered him with the likes of famed self-helmers like Woody Allen and Ingmar Bergman). For the most part the film is about a grouping of elderly British ladies brought together for daily tea in Florence, Italy just before the beginning of the war. After a well made scene in which the leader of the group Hester (Smith) meets with Mussolini and gets his word that England would never be an enemy to his fascist regime, the film falls apart as it tries to bring back the story of a small Italian child taken care of by the ladies, who now wants to help them get free from the war torn country. Along for the ride are two American women: masculine excavator Georgie (Tomlin) and lushly extravagant collector Elsa (Cher).
The film falters with weak story features throughout that make the film seem way too over long and the direction seems rather novice for a guy that has been in the business for over forty years (“get a shot of someone being pushed, now cut to the guy moving as he is pushed”). There are two main things that I rather enjoyed about the film. First of all is the great cast that shows the endless acting clout of Smith and Davis especially. The other great feature of the film is its look. Whether in a falling apart cathedral or a art school filled with sculptures, the film rarely goes without showing of its beautiful sets and locations. Of course maybe that has been Zeffirelli’s crowning achievement all along: good sets.
