Now I'm thinking of how to rank this film, underrated? or just deserves its lukewarm greeting when first came into theaters in 1999. Director Franco Zeffirelli (Brother Sun, Sister Moon 1972) was at his twilight time when shot this film (he was 76 then), which undeniably means there is scare chance that any director could launch another career apex (late bloomers are not included).
Firstly for any film aficionados, the vintage cast consists of Cher, Maggie, Judi, Joan and Lily has an irresistible allure which only indicates that it will not dash my hope of an enchanting 2-hour stretch. The film gets Cher plays herself, divine and vulnerable at the same time, although I don't buy it when she would make such a rash and unexplained mistake in the latter story, maybe Paolo Seganti is too hot to resist (who knows, he is killingly delicious here). My favorite performance here is Dame Maggie Smith, whose acute spinster character is again fun to watch, alongside her old confidante Dame Judi Dench, a more vivacious image as Arabella, the art guardian. Joan Plowright's part is a heartrending one and Lily Tomlin's lesbian fashion could never be better for her.
After all, this is a biographic story of Zeffirelli himself and our protagonist is Luca, whose adolescent ceremony co-occurs with WWII, which profoundly affects those expatriate ladies. This is a substantially feel-good film, and I must say I did enjoy the film, Zeffirelli failed to keep the balance to not reveal his conspicuous contrivances of bolstering the emotional momentum, so it leaves me some artificial impulse to discern some biased point-of-view about British chauvinism and American flattery, anyway, nothing to do with Italians, eventually.
Firstly for any film aficionados, the vintage cast consists of Cher, Maggie, Judi, Joan and Lily has an irresistible allure which only indicates that it will not dash my hope of an enchanting 2-hour stretch. The film gets Cher plays herself, divine and vulnerable at the same time, although I don't buy it when she would make such a rash and unexplained mistake in the latter story, maybe Paolo Seganti is too hot to resist (who knows, he is killingly delicious here). My favorite performance here is Dame Maggie Smith, whose acute spinster character is again fun to watch, alongside her old confidante Dame Judi Dench, a more vivacious image as Arabella, the art guardian. Joan Plowright's part is a heartrending one and Lily Tomlin's lesbian fashion could never be better for her.
After all, this is a biographic story of Zeffirelli himself and our protagonist is Luca, whose adolescent ceremony co-occurs with WWII, which profoundly affects those expatriate ladies. This is a substantially feel-good film, and I must say I did enjoy the film, Zeffirelli failed to keep the balance to not reveal his conspicuous contrivances of bolstering the emotional momentum, so it leaves me some artificial impulse to discern some biased point-of-view about British chauvinism and American flattery, anyway, nothing to do with Italians, eventually.