MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD (Mio fratello e figlio unico)

THINKFilm
Reviewed for CompuServe by Harvey Karten
Grade: B+
Directed by: Daniele Luchetti
Written By: Sandro Petraglia, Stefano Rulli, Daniele Luchetti, from novel “Il Fasciocomunista” by Antonio Pennacchi
Cast: Elio Germano, Riccardo Scamarcio, Diane Fieri, Alba Rohrwacher, Angela Finocchiaro Younger, Vittorio Emanuele Propizio
Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 1/24/08
Opens: March 28, 2008

Daniele Luchetti’s vivid comedy of a brotherly late-hate relationship might remind some movie buffs of Irwin Winkler’s movie “Home of the Brave,” in which Samuel L. Jackson’s character, Will Marsh, home from service in Iraq, faces adolescent rebellion from his son Billy. Billy is militantly anti-war to the distress of his mother, but his dad, using pop psychology, tells his wife that if he (Will Marsh) were a pacifist, his son would be in Falluja the next day. In other words, whatever dad would do, his son would do the opposite. This appears to be the situation involving Accio (played as a kid by Vittorio Emanuele Propizio as as a young man by Elio Germano) who can’t get enough attention or, later, the affections of a woman that his brother enjoys. Without feeling political, he joins the Fascist party during the 1960s in Italy, many years after the demise of Mussolini, simply to be contrary to his brother, the Communist, and to justify his reputation as a bully by casting his aggressiveness as a political operation.

What we have here, then, is a politically divided family, brother against brother, with the caveat that only one of the sibs, Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio), the Communist, is a true believer-- though for all we know he joined the party in part to meet women, since he does have quite a nice time with the beautiful, vivacious half-French Francesca (Diane Fieri). The movie comes from the pen of a pair who gave us the “The Best of Youth,” a 363-minute look into the life choices of two brothers against a backdrop of social change in Italy from 1966 through the nineties involving Mafiosos and the Red Brigades. The writers know whereof they speak this time around, though politics takes a back seat to the family comedy the luminous epic qualities of “The Best of Youth” now giving away to a lighter touch.

The story opens on the adolescent Accio’s brief stay in a seminary, the fun beginning early on as he deliberately tries to get expelled by confessing impure thoughts and actions without success to an all-too-understanding priest The lad from a working-class family in the town of Latina, just south of Rome, joins the Fascist party to thumb his nose at his leftist clan, visits Mussolini’s grave, and beats up on people without ever convincing himself that he really loves il Duce. His disgust with the party widens when the local leader and the gang go after Accio’s Communist bro when the latter tries to organize a factory.

So far as politics is concerned, if director Daniele Luchetti goes after the easy target of fascism, he is not above ribbing the Reds as well. During a Marxist-sponsored concerned of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy,” the fourth movement of the Ninth Symphony, the conductor scratches the German composer’s love of brotherhood substiting a libretto adoring Marx, Lenin and Stalin.

Romantic interests abound, including a seduction of the woman-starved Accio, who had been hitting on his brother’s girlfriend, making for a jaunty story with a melodramatic moment near the conclusion. Claudio Collepiccolo handles the photography while the subtitles, opening in a difficult-to-read beige color, turn to a bold white presumably for symbolic reasons known to the director.

Not Yet Rated. 108 minutes. © 2008 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online