There's little doubt that events in a person's past -- especially their childhood -- have shaped and molded, for better or worse, who they've later become. This is particularly true for filmmakers whose works often incorporate or reflect those past experiences and show how they've affected their personal and artistic views of the world.
Director Paul Verhoeven has stated in interviews that the graphic violence in his films such as "Robocop" and "Total Recall" stems from growing up in his war-torn homeland, and there's little doubt that Quentin Tarantino's stint working in a video store where he was exposed to cinema's past helped shape his films' snappy dialogue and visual and verbal references to classic movies.
All of which leads us to "Tea With Mussolini," a film loosely based on the childhood life of its director, Franco Zeffirelli, and in particular, his memoirs, "Zeffirelli - An Autobiography," published in 1988. Named after an interesting, but rather short and ultimately less than compelling moment in the picture (especially considering the title), the film is a mildly enjoyable, if greatly fragmented picture that's fortunately filled with a great cast.
Since Zeffirelli takes a great deal of self-admitted artistic license with his past -- a point I should remember when I make a film about my life and how I was a child billionaire who gave it all away just so that I could review movies for parents -- one will never know exactly how much influence his past had on films such as his Oscar-nominated version of "Romeo and Juliet" or the more recent adaption of "Hamlet" (with Mel Gibson & Glenn Close).
While the film never readily promotes that it's autobiographical -- except in the closing "whatever happened to" credits -- such knowledge not only makes one question the validity of what occurs, but also makes one think of the character played by Jon Lovitz in past episodes of "Saturday Night Live" who would say, "Yeah, that's the ticket!" when making up facts about himself.
All of which may explain why most of the Italian guards/soldiers often seem like such pussycat softies. While it's possible that not all on the "wrong side" of the war were bad, and acknowledging that scenes where the ladies reprimand or defy such guards make for audience pleasing moments, they often defy credibility. Had the film been played more as a comedy, such scenes might have held up better, but as it stands they're somewhat problematic.
Presented as a drama with some meager comic underpinnings, others may have problems with the fact that the film never really captures the horrors of the war that serves as its story's constant backdrop and instead treats it more like a nuisance or mere plot catalyst. While that goes along with the notion of the women either being so stubborn or ignorant of truly understanding what's coming down the pike, so to speak, it doesn't work as well as say, Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful," that perfectly portrayed a superficial and purposefully lackadaisical approach to war.
That nitpicking aside, the film, like many others that try to cover a wide span of years, often feels too episodic for its own good. While John Mortimer's screenplay generally moves along in a straightforward, chronological manner from the seeds of fascist unrest to the full-blown war -- covering a decade or so -- the film never fully worked for me nor engaged my emotions into the proceedings.
Everything's certainly nice to look at, thanks to Oscar winning cinematographer David Watkins ("Out of Africa"), but I constantly felt like I was watching a series of vignettes -- some good, some mediocre -- instead of an all-encompassing, cohesive picture. Others, of course, may be drawn into and enjoy every bit of it, and the fact that the film has a great ensemble cast of past Oscar winners and nominees clearly doesn't hurt matters.
From Maggie Smith (a winner for "The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" and "California Sweet") and Joan Plowright (a nominee for "Enchanted April") to Judi Dench (a winner for "Shakespeare in Love" and a nominee for "Mrs. Brown"), the performances are great and each actress nicely delineates their respective characters.
The odd person out -- somewhat purposefully done since her character is in the same situation -- is Cher. While the contrast of her age and character nationality (not to mention the nearly career- killing move to "star in" infomercials) instantly set her apart from her fellow performers and their characters, once one accepts the intentional incongruity, she seems to do a fine job (which shouldn't come as a surprise since she also won an Oscar for her work in "Moonstruck").
Supporting performances from the likes of comedienne Lily Tomlin ("9 to 5," and yes, another Oscar nominee for "Nashville") and newcomers Charlie Lucas and Baird Wallace (who play director Zeffirelli's alter-ego) are also solid.
The superb cast and performances aside, I simply wish the film did for me. While it was moderately interesting to watch at times, I often found myself bored, distanced, and certainly never captivated nor really compelled to root for the characters to overcome their predicament. As such, this decent, but not great picture gets a 5.5 out of 10.
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