**1/2 (out of ****)
Starring Cher, Dame Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Dame Maggie Smith, Lily Tomlin, Baird Wallace, Charlie Lucas, Mino Bellei, and Paolo Seganti
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli & written by Zeffirelli and John Mortimer, from Zefferelli’s autobiography
1999
117 min PG
No one in the movies ever says “this war is going to last forever,” except that one brooding guy in the corner that everyone else thinks is a killjoy.
The “homefront” movie, about civilians during wartime, is a respectable genre that shows no sign of aging. We learn what life was like before the war, how everyone survived during the hostilities, and how they came out, if not tougher, then at least more concentrated. Life before the war is usually somewhat frivolous, with hints dropped here and there about the gathering storm, and, when the fighting is about to erupt, someone always says “it’ll be over in a few weeks!” Moron. “Gone With the Wind” follows Scarlett O’Hara and her plantation through, in, and out the Civil War, “Hope and Glory” does the same with London children in the 1940s, and “The Pianist” is about Jews in Poland.
“Tea With Mussolini” is about a circle of affluent British ladies—well-preserved widows, biddies, and old maids—living in Florence in the 1930s and 1940s. In many ways, the movie picks up where “A Room With a View” left off, perhaps a generation or two later, with English women who have turned Italy into their own little toy, populated by what they see as a child-like, vaguely primitive culture that somehow “came into” a land full of sculptures and Dante. The ladies savor the climate, the art, and the countryside, while still remaining essentially English and spending a lot of time telling the Italians how they should live.
The presence of Maggie Smith in both “Mussolini” and “A View” serves as a handy connection; here she plays the widow of the British ambassador and, six years after his death, still expects to be treated deferentially. She is joined by Judi Dench as the artistic one and Joan Plowright as the moral one, who actually has a job. Their never-ending vacation is disrupted by the rise of the Fascists and the appearance of affluent American women, including Cher as a larger-than-life gold-digger and Lily Tomlin as an archaeologist, searching for artifacts that dare not speak their names. Maggie doesn’t much care for Cher, not so much for being amoral as for being ostentatious.
Their tribulations during wartime bring them all down a few pegs, throwing the snooty Brits and the loud Americans together, and get them to appreciate life without quite so many frivolities. There are angry mobs smashing windows, black-clad and impossibly handsome resistance fighters, and flag-waving processions around triumphant Scottish tanks.
The movie is seen through the eyes of a young orphan boy (Baird Wallace and, later, Charlie Lucas) who is probably based on filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli’s (the 1968 “Romeo and Juliet” and Mel Gibson’s “Hamlet”) own experiences. “Tea With Mussolini” is neither about the boy nor the women, but about the boy’s view of the women. This is a tough trick to do well and the result is a muddy, rambling, episodic narrative. Slicing off the right bit of life is no easy feat, and Zeffirelli’s film begins threads that do not end, or come out of nowhere as if the movie is and has been about them all along.
“Tea’s” fascists are mostly pushovers. They can spread across Europe like a plague and send millions off to death camps but they’re powerless in the face of daffy old ladies in big hats. The movie also seems to suggest that it’s good those dumb Italians have Brits to show them how to live, first before the war, and then saving them afterwards. Maybe that’s too cynical; cultures, like individuals, are not self-sufficient, do not have all the answers, and need help from others to build themselves.
“Tea With Mussolini” is a sweet, good-natured film, including a few gentle laughs about how Maggie’s grandson is kept from the fighting, and more bits with a dog involving Judi Dench. Zeffirelli and his movie know the women’s plight is not nearly as dire as that of a lot of other people in 1940s Europe and does not hype their condition. The ladies, despite their initial selfishness, band together to protect the Jew in their midst as well as the old art and cathedrals that are threatened, and come out of the fighting better people for it.
Finished January 25, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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