The Magic of Cher News Archive

"Tea Review"

Source:  National Review, June 28, 1999 v51 i12 p58.     Title:  Film:Tea.(Review)     Author:  John Simon Subjects:  Motion pictures - Reviews     People:  Cher Nmd Works:  Notting Hill (Motion picture) - Reviews      Tea With Mussolini (Motion picture) - Reviews    Magazine Collection:  99A0413 Electronic Collection:  A54864493    RN:  A54864493

    * Tea with Mussolini is based on a couple of paragraphs of the Italian director Franco Zeffirelli's autobiography, in whose very foreword we read, "No one tells the full truth about themselves." The screenplay by Zeffirelli and John Mortimer is indeed highly fictionalized (mostly by Mortimer, I guess, as Mr. Z. says in the same foreword, "I am a raconteur rather than a writer"), and its content of truth seems about as full as a hunter's moon. It concerns a gaggle of British ladies of a certain age leading a charmed life in Florence in the '30s, pursuing hobbies if affluent, and working at respectable jobs if not. They are known to the locals as the scorpioni for the sting of their meddling superiority. Their leader is Lady Hester (Maggie Smith), widow of a former British ambassador and great fan of Mussolini's because of a once-shared tea. Arabella (Judi Dench) officiously protects frescoes and fancies herself a singer. A butch American archeologist, Georgie (Lily Tomlin), is a showy lesbian. Most level-headed is Mary (Joan Plowright), a secretary and translator, who becomes de facto foster mother to little Luca, her boss's bastard and Zeffirelli's alter ego. There are also other British ladies, but all are eclipsed by a flamboyant American, Elsa, a lucratively widowed ex-Ziegfeld girl (Cher), who generously and anonymously shares her wealth with the rest until, being Jewish, she lands in mortal danger. Though Mary does admirably by Luca, his proto-fascist father packs him off to Austria to learn German, as the Duce and the Fuhrer form an axis, and war is about to break out. By the time Luca returns as a young man, the scorpions have been interned at picturesquely medieval San Gimignano, and it will be up to Luca and the partisans he valiantly joins to rescue them. That is about as much as you need to know, though there are many incidents of mingled charm, sentimentality, and even suspense, laced with dollops of wit. Frankly, I didn't expect old Zeffirelli to show so much verve and viability at this late stage, yet he does better here than in his bejeweled prime. Credit also his shrewdly picked collaborators, notably the droll Mortimer and the great cinematographer David Watkin. Watkin keeps the exteriors fresco-like in tone (one sunset on the Arno is pure Giotto, had Giotto painted sunsets) and his interiors bursting with life. There is also intelligently spare background music, and Florence itself is enough to melt the eye. All the smartly cast actresses perform yeoman's work, only Lily Tomlin may have been allowed a few balls too many. The two Lucas, child and youth, are equally adorable, Mr. Z. being especially fastidious about choosing his alter egos. But it is Joan Plowright who walks away with top honors in a performance that blends warmth and pawkiness, sparkle and gravitas, heart and backbone. So perfect a being could hardly exist, but the actress makes her grittily alive without allowing the occasionally circumambient sentimentality to creep into her work. Yet even the film's tear-jerking is executed with a certain restraint; there is not that much tea in Tea with Mussolini, but the sympathy is ubiquitous.