Tea with Mussolini

Wow, Tea with Mussolini is a total mess! This 1999 Franco Zeffereli film, with an awesome cast that includes Joan Plowright, Judi Dentch, Maggie Smith, Lilly Tomlin and Cher, just barely manages to not suck. It was a sprawling mess of a movie, but still at the end I was all teary eyed.

That is, I kind of have to admit I enjoyed it. It's about a group of expats in Italy during WWII. Mostly British biddies who are enamored of Italy and Mussolini, as well as two notable American's, Cher, who is extremely wealthy and willful but warm and caring (and, it turns out, Jewish) and Lilly Tomlin, who is sort of incidentally a dyke, although this is sort of like a random fact just tacked on. The ladies all pitch in the early education of a young motherless Italian boy before he is sent off to school in Germany, and their care and attention and eccentricities have deep meaning for him. Years later, when Mussolini enters war with England and America, and the ladies are under custody, he and the American Jewess come to their rescue.

I can't help thinking this could have been great. But it just seemed to keep missing it's mark. Not quite funny enough, not quite dramatic enough, etc. The characters all had a degree of charm, but were also rather two dimensional ("I'm the shrew!" - "I'm the ditzy hysteric!" -- "I'm the wise and warm one!" - "I'm the dyke!" -- "I'm the lovable rich eccentric!", etc.).