Father Geek here with a very early test screening report on Tucci's THE WHOLE SHEBANG. The key phrase here is "very early test screening". Remember that. This is still a work in progress. Editing was rough, scenes may be deleted or added, the music was probably just a temp track. Our writer likes alot about this including Tucci's performance, "Like Peter Sellers" he discribes it. Well, that sounds very promising to Father Geek...
Dear Harry and all AICN readers,
The other night I was able to attend a very early screening of "The Whole Shebang", starring Stanley Tucci and Bridget Fonda. It's by first time director George Zaloom, who also co-wrote it. He was there, as well as the producers and a few of the actors, including Anna Maria Alberghetti. In a nutshell, the movie is about Giovanni Bazinni (Stanley Tucci), a young man from Naples, Italy, who flies to New Jersey to help run a fireworks factory for his realtives there after his cousin dies in a fireworks explosion. He is awkward, shy, and completely smitten with Val (Bridget Fonda), the widow of the tragic cousin, who continues to help Pop (Giancarlo Giannini) maintain the tradition of Bazinni Fireworks.
Before the movie started, one of the producers (I can't remember which) stood up and gave a heart felt introduction to the picture, and explained to us that for a long time his company had been trying to find an Italian-American themed script that had heart and stayed away from portraying Italians in a stereotypical manner. Being a 100% Italian myself, I was glad to hear it. He said he read through countless scripts, but found nothing that portrayed an Italian community in the right way. Then, finally, his dentist pitched him an idea based on a real-life family who owned a fireworks factory, and the rest is celluloid. Great story. Great introduction. We all smiled and clapped.
But I gotta say: There were a lot of typical Italian stereotypes in this movie. I was with my father who was visiting me (obviously an Italian), my step-mother (an Italian) and a Croation friend (who has spent much time in Italy), and every one of us felt the same way after the film. The characters were mostly two-dimensional, and I couldn't relate to much of anything. Giancarlo Giannini, as wonderful an actor as he is, was always shouting in his thick accent about the cliches of love (amore!) and how fireworks had something to do with it. Anna Marie Alberghetti played Lady Zito, a rival fireworks factory owner who might as well have been called Cruella DeVille - everything she said and did was evil, evil, evil. Anthony DeSando played her bumbling idiot of a son, who woos Bridget Fonda. He has no depth as a character other than the fact that he used to be fat. Bridget Fonda herself seemed to have no place in this film. She looked like she was struggling to fit in with all this Italian atmosphere.
And what year is it in this film? For the first twenty minutes, we all thought it was some time in the 50's, maybe 60's. All you saw was this old fireworks factory, the family itself who dressed too conservatively to really tell, and then bam, you're in Naples, where it always looks like it's 1925. You didn't see anybody driving a car, watching television, or speaking even remotely about anything modern. Then, all of a sudden, whack! Somebody is using a cell phone! We all did a double take. "What year is this movie? Is that a real cell phone?"
I don't want to completely rip on the film. I do think that with a re-edit, the film would be fine. I did like the first act. Stanley Tucci was incredibly reminiscent of Peter Sellers. The first few scenes with him in Italy are hilarious. He is infatuated with his Italian girlfriend, played by Jo Champ, who dumps him in the beginning of the film and keeps appearing to him throughout the second act in devilish hallucinations, trying to lure him back to Italy.
I loved watching Tucci. However, somewhere in the middle of the second act, his character's quest becomes lost on the audience, and the movie shifts over to Bridget Fonda and her struggle with her decision to marry the rival Joey Zito (which would make Pop mad). In my opinion, a protagonist's actions propel the story forward, and that's what keeps you interested. Tucci's character became mostly passive toward the middle of the movie, and so it was hard to stay interested. The third act, which takes place back in Naples at a world-famous fireworks festival, is a little hokey for me, a little too cutesy, but maybe that's what George Zaloom really really wanted.
All in all, it was not bad. There were a lot of funny moments, and Tucci was a pleasure as always. The story could have used work, and the characters could have been beefed up a little. I'm sure it will get a distributor.
The Dago
