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September 10, 2008
Funny, they don't seem Italian
With so many good movies failing to find theatrical distribution in this country and going directly to DVD, the fairly wide release last Friday of the stillborn, would-be romantic comedy, “Everybody Wants to Be Italian,” is one of the major film industry mysteries of 2008.
The low-budget picture opened to withering reviews which I read while I was away on vacation, a situation that sometimes puts me in a sympathetic, pity-the-underdog frame of mind. But, when I caught up with “Everybody” earlier this week, it more than lived down to its bad press.
The ads and website for the comedy make it look like an attempt to do for Italians what the 2002 indie sleeper “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” did for Greeks.
There are also some echoes of “Moonstruck” in the film’s dizzy, star-crossed lovers and the incessant use of Italian music on the soundtrack, but “Everybody Wants to Be Italian” turns out to be a bait-and-switch proposition because the comedy doesn’t really focus on Italian-Americans the way the Cher/Nicolas Cage vehicle did 20 years ago.
The hero (Jay Jablonski) is Polish and the heroine (Cerina Vincent) is Hispanic. Both of them have had problems finding stable relationships and are urged by friends and family to check out a Boston singles group for Italians.
Jablonski’s co-workers in his fish-shop are Italian and Vincent has an old Italian woman living in her apartment building, so much of the enthnic flavor feels synthetic and tacked-on.
You could easily do a hasty rewrite on the script and remake it as “Everybody Wants to Be Puerto Rican” or “...German” or “...Irish.”
It would be fascinating to learn how this hopeless turkey received a (brief) theatrical life on its quick passage to the bargain bin at your neighborhood video store.
Posted by Joe on September 10, 2008 9:53 AM
