Made in Italy (2021) Review

This film came to Amazon Prime yesterday and this morning I decided to watch Made in Italy and here is my review for it. The premise of the film sees an artist and his estranged son travel to Italy in order to sell the house left to them by his late wife. 

Main Character

Liam Neeson and his real life son Micheal Richardson play the two lead characters and they are both good in their roles, especially when the focus is put on their relationship and the dynamic between them. It feels extra special as if you know about their real lives then you will know that both of them kind of lived through this life with Neeson's wife passing away and both of them having to deal with the situation. You can tell it gives extra weight to the performances and a love for the film that they are making. 

Supporting Characters

This film has a lack of supporting characters but a few of the performers do some okay work in their roles. Lindsay Duncan & Valeria Bilello are good and does have some nice chemistry with the two leads to provide some nice scenes. But there are also some characters that are given very little to do and I mean it just feels like there isn't any weight given to the characters here. 

Story 

The story has some good moments to it, the relationship between Neeson and Richardson is what carries this film and it is at its best in the last act of the film and leads to a nice ending for the story with some pretty moving scenes. But the film doesn't do enough and have enough meat to it in the first two acts and it just feels like we are going through the motions without much innovation or new ideas. 

Script

As I said, this film is very personal to the two lead actors and when they really tap into that there is some emotional scenes that maybe due to the actors real life add extra layers of emotion there. But its strange, everywhere I look this film is described as a comedy but it isn't very funny at all and is actually at its best when it is more serious, which isn't great for a comedy. 

Style

This film has really nice backdrops, the film spends the majority of the runtime in Italy and it looks beautiful. The film does a really good job in showing just how lovely this part of the world is and it adds something to the experience. But even though this film is barely over 90 mins, it still feels a bit slow and takes too long to get going, which isn't great. 

Overall

Overall, Made in Italy is an above average film. I don't understand the really negative reviews, this is a nice film that plays it a bit safe but there are some good things here. I would say you can do worse for 90 minutes but this one is only going to be for people who watch plenty of films. 

Rating - 6/10