Our Italian Husband (2006)

This hilarious romantic comedy stars the ever-popular Brooke Shields as Charlene the American wife of Vincenzo a struggling Italian artist who wants to make a name for himself in New York s cutting-edge art scene. Just one problem: He s already married! When Maria Vincenzo s Italian wife crosses the Atlantic with two her kids she s less than thrilled to find her husband living with the very pregnant Charlene whose fury matches anything Maria can dish out. But both women soon find themselves united against Paul Parmesan a self-serving home shopping magnate who tries to exploit them both Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: UNRATED UPC: 000799436127 Manufacturer No: 23151 Product Description

That's Amore

If you like your romantic comedies chock full of recognizable stereotypes, completely devoid of logic, and miles away from making you think, then you'll love "Our Italian Husband," a 2004 farce now making the rounds of the video stores.

The set-up is simple: Vincenzo is a largely talentless Italian sculptor who makes his way to New York in search of fame and fortune. Unfortunately, while leaving a wife and two children behind, he finds not fame and fortune, but another wife. Add her one child from a previous relationship and the bun Vincenzo has deposited in her oven, and our hero has equally balanced families on both sides of the Atlantic. Naturally, since this is a "comedy," the Italian wife and kids soon turn up at the door of the NYC wife and kids, for whom Vincenzo has been no more able to provide than he was for his Italian brood.

Unfortunately for the audience and a mostly talented cast, in place of creativity, writer/director Ilaria Borrelli falls back on hackneyed convention. It is no surprise, therefore, that in place of acting, accomplished Italian thespians Maria Grazia Cucinotta and Pierfrancesco Favino deliver stereotypes straight out of central casting, while Chevy Chase is simply embarrassing as a sleazeball cable-TV huckster who tries to cheat both of Vincenzo's women. The only cast member who isn't a disappointment is Brooke Shields, who, since she can't act anyway, lives up to her usual standards but does no worse than one has come to expect after lo these many years.

Yes, it is a "cute" movie that will pass pleasantly enough, and actually generate a smile or a titter or two. But the problem is that with the banal storyline and by-the-numbers acting, the viewer has time to wonder about the underlying message of the film. Borelli must have a large amount of pent up anger towards men in general and men of Southern Italian extraction in particular. The former in this film are portrayed as generally useless except as hired domestic help, and the latter are portrayed as irredeemable pigs. Nice.

Needless to say, it is the plucky women who save the day, keep themselves and their kids from living on the streets, and give Chevy Chase his just deserts. Having more than met his match in their combined empowerment, Vincenzo, for his part, faces a life of doing the dishes.

This film is no worse than a lot of the romantic comedies out there, and is probably better than some. Cucinotta gets to display some of her characteristic fire, Shields get to play a grown-up (sort of), Chase gets to essentially reprise some of his old SNL routines and everyone gets to live happily ever after.

These are hard times for romantic comedy, a genre whose glory days of Cary Grant are long gone. In place of the cleverness of yesteryear, today's audience is usually offered the sappy, the silly, and the stale. "Our Italian Husband" not the worst the genre has to offer by a long shot; it is just light years away from being really interesting, genuinely engaging or truly amusing. Frankly, day old pizza has more appeal.
September 1, 2006

Rent a Husband Italian Style

'Mariti in affitto' ('Our Italian Husband') is sort of a mess of a movie. Ilaria Borrelli wrote and directed this bilingual film and apparently lost track of her story during the making of it. The Italian language portions are supplemented by English subtitles, but the English, when spoken, is so distorted by the actors and by the musical sound track that the words are nearly incomprehensible. What results is a slapstick comedy acted way over the top to the point of frustration on the part of the audience.

The action opens somewhere in Italy where Maria Scocozza (Maria Grazia Cucinotta) is eking out a living making sandals to support her two children from her marriage to artist Vincenzo Scocozza (Pierfrancesco Favino) who left for America some years ago to make it big in New York. Maria is courted by older gentlemen who threaten her to the point that she leaves with her two children to fly to New York to re-join her husband. Upon arrival she finds an unfriendly country but no husband and is befriended by Raul (Diego Serrano) who eventually finds her work passing out flyers for an agency called 'Rent a Husband'. She eventually discovers her husband has remarried to TV model Charlene (Brooke Shields) who is extremely pregnant. Outraged but with no place to go, Maria and her two children move in with Charlene and Vincenzo, and as predicted the two women eventually join to plot against the two-timing Vincenzo...etc etc etc.

The acting is raw - Chevy Chase even has a role as a TV writer - and the performances all border on overacting. There is a hint that somewhere in this mélange of ideas there are some solid humanistic points to be made, but everything gets lost in the mess of a production. Not a very good way to spend an evening. Grady Harp, August 06

August 13, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...