Redgrave to the rescue.By John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"For stony limits cannot hold love out." Romeo and Juliet
When is a romantic comedy a tragedy? When it isn't Shakespeare for sure and less so when it's an American production that actually is closer to drama wannabe. Think of Mamma Mia! Mixing with Roman Holiday and directed by Ron Howard.
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is an American fact-finder for The New Yorker, engaged to Victor (Gael Garcia Bernal), traveling for a pre-marriage Honeymoon to Tuscany. Victor is more interested in connecting for his restaurant business than he is in connecting with miss dimpled big eyes.
If you are familiar with the romcom formula, you'll not be surprised she meets handsome young Brit, Charlie (Christopher Egan), who is at first belligerent and negative. You know the rest of the story-- director Gary Winick and his writers don't disappoint filling in the blanks.
The movie is saved from being laughably formulaic by the presence of Vanessa Redgrave as Charlie's grandmother, Claire, who meets Sophie on Claire's quest to reconnect 50 years later with a lost love in Tuscany. That senior moment, with its sincerity and joy, makes the yunguns' look like child's play.
Redgrave underplays the wise old romantic to great effect. While she is far more at home playing an impressive Prospero (as I saw her in London at the Globe), she gracefully tries not to embarrass the young actors, who appear not to have a modicum of the Redgrave genius.
The scenery is, of course, splendid?long shots of the famous vineyards and multiple shots of Verona and Siena. Siena is done well, the plaza being one of the world's greatest and one at which I've had quite a few glasses of Chianti and some romance. But then, the region is so romantic, who needs a second rate affair--or romcom for that matter?
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com