Since "My Big Fat Greek
Wedding", there have been numerous films with sweet
storylines, basically displaying the cultures and lifestyles of
a certain race or ethnicity. "Bend It Like
Beckham" is a perfect example, using soccer as it's
background. Here, in "Mambo Italiano", Italians
are the ethnicity and culture, and homosexuality is the
backdrop. I also suspect filmmaker Emile Gaudreault was
trying to show that not all Italians are like James Gandolfini
and Edie Falco. Just my opinion.
In
this film, Montreal serves as the setting, in a nice
pseudo-Italian, pseudo-Canadian section of the city. Luke
Kirby stars as Angelo Barberini, a young man who was always
picked on in school for being more feminine that masculine,
which makes sense, considering he is a closeted homosexual.
His parents, Maria (Ginette Reno) and Gino (Paul Sorvino) are
clueless to this, but do give him some very 'traditional'
Italian commands on sex. Things get complicated, however,
when Angelo meets Nino (Peter Miller), a former tormentor of
Angelos, who has grown up to be a cop and also a closeted
homosexual. The two men move in together, which is when
their parents start with the matchmaking (of course).
Some things just didn't click with me in this film. For
starters, Luke Kirby and Peter Miller might be the two most
heterosexual men I have ever seen attempt to portray
homosexuals. They really don't have any chemistry
together, and watching them prance around and pretend to 'not be
gay' -- when they are so obviously not -- was just distracting
and somewhat bothering. I also didn't like how Italian
people were shown in the same old stereotypes -- sure, maybe not
gun toting mafia men, but spaghetti eating, back of the head
slapping, lugs who hold tradition above everything else.
It is 2003. It is Montreal. Not Venice.
Despite the flaws, "Mambo Italiano" is a sweet little
love story, slash social commentary, and is fine as a film about
Italian peoples and their traditions, but not as a film about
dealing with homosexuality. I think Steven Seagal and Jean
Claude Van Damme could have played gay much better. And,
Paul Sorvino is delightful in his role as the father. It
was nice seeing him pop up unexpectedly in such a low budget,
sweet hearted picture.
A
much better love story that combines back story with cultures
was "The Bread, My Sweet", starring Scott Baio, which
I reviewed earlier this year. I believe it is still
showing in theatres, so you might be able to find it if you live
near a big city. It had a much more sentimental heart to
it, and I thought it was marvelous. "Mambo Italiano"
is no horrible, but marvelous it is not. If you like films
in the style of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", this one
might be right up your alley.
