By The unspoken grief keeping a father and son apart is what is at the focus of this gentle comedy drama, starring Liam Neeson alongside his actual son Micheál Richardson. Neeson and Richardson did, of course, suffer a real life tragedy when their wife and mother Natasha Richardson sadly passed away following a ski injury. The material here, then, in Made In Italy, undoubtedly would have spoken to the father-son pair on a deep personal level, but sadly the film doesn’t quite have the material to back them up.
Richardson plays Jack, a young art gallery manager who is about to go through a divorce. Keen to keep hold of the gallery, Jack convinces his father, reclusive artist Robert (Neeson) to sell their old family home in Tuscany. The house has sat abandoned since a tragic accident took the life of Jack’s mother when he was very young. Together, the estranged father-son pair head back to Italy to repair the house for potential buyers, leading them on the pair on the path to piecing their relationship back together.
Full review over at Filmhounds Magazine, originally published March 26th 2021.
Andrew Gaudion 