Everybody Wants to Be Italian
September. 18,2007Are all relationships based on lies? Jake Bianski runs a fish market in north Boston, surrounded by Italians. For years, he's carried a torch for Isabella, an ex-girlfriend now married with three children and no interest in Jake. Yet, he tells everyone she's his girlfriend, including Marisa, a veterinarian his employees set him up with at the Italian singles club. She's interested in him until he tells her about his girlfriend, then he's persistent in asking her to be his friend. As the friendship bumps along, Jake realizes that reality may be better than fantasy, but what if Isabella changes her mind about Jake, and what if it comes out that Marisa, like Jake, isn't Italian?
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Reviews
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.
Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
This movie is simply dismal. The script is among the worst I've ever seen brought even to home video. Just about every scene is an awkward, poorly set up contrivance, the jokes are howlers. And once again we have actors overdoing the stereotype of an Italian-American accent by using a New York accent...in a movie that takes place in Boston.Everything about this movie was bad, the conversations between the Italian and Italian-American characters being the very worst of it. Not five seconds goes by without a cliché, which almost becomes comforting in its predictability.For a while I watched this movie just to see if it was as dismal as it seemed when I first tuned in. It was. I went against my rule of always watching movies through to the end, but ended up turning it off. I have no idea how it even ends, and I don't even care.
There are a couple of flaws with this film. It feel slightly untidy and rough around the edges. It obviously lacked funding and was clearly targeted at the Sat night American market. It lacks the strong script of an independent film, but also the big budget for a good cinematographer, or at least a screenwriter to tie up the loose ends.I was expecting two distinctive things from this film - stereotypical Italians and one dimensional characters, orbiting the main cast and providing us with some ethnicity based comedy. At one point we see a man in a white vest shouting from a window!!! The second aspect of the film I was expecting was two lovable main characters. Unfortunately Cerina Vincent failed to soften at any point during the film. I understand this is how her character is written, but any characteristic which would endear her to the audience failed to materialise, even towards the end of the film. Jay Jablonski put in a surprisingly good performance as a rude, childish but ultimately likable stalker. He just about managed to rescue his character despite the poor script. Unfortunately his character lacked emotional consistency and therefore came across as slightly mentally ill, perhaps with a touch of schizophrenia.If you like hearing Italian dialogue in a film, (which was all very authentic, apart from the two old people), then go see Everybody Wants to Be Italian, but there isn't much else holding it together.
Not too much pasta and sauce on this plate but plenty of fun inside the shell's. I wouldn't call this the best romantic comedy I have seen over the last 2-3 years but what it had for me was a refreshing blend of ingredients that didn't upset my stomach. A good blend of old and new from a cast that worked well on screen together. Once I got past the notion that this guy Jake, was held up on the same girl for 8 years, I was fine. The scene when Jake was with all the educated Harvard types and he broke down his business model was a fun twist, we got to learn that this guy was more than a good looking frame. I have seen critical reviews the last three days and I for one just don't see where they are coming from, I'd suggest you get out and see the film for yourself. I don't know how much the title hurts the film, but I certainly don't think people should take it so literal, it would seem that the writer wanted to express that everyone wants to be passionate, needed, and in search of a sole mate?
I too had similar reactions in the theater I went to this week. Audience I would say liked the film, let's say a 3 out of 5 star and what I have read online so far especially from the NYC critics is like a 1 out of 5, there is no way this film is a 1, what are you watching or are we so used to what Hollywood has been running out there every five days that we forget about movies like The Godfather, hello, do you remember the score, it wasn't like it kept flowing, there were times where you could fall asleep, but no one is questioning one of the best movies of all time, now this is no Godfather, but the cast, Jay Jablonski, Cerina Vincent, Marisa Petroro, John Enos, and John Kapelos, all inter-act on screen nicely, the story line and characters ARE believable, have you ever spent time listening to Italian guys talk, this is the real deal. Call it what you will but my Italian step-father agrees 100% he loved the film. I hope the general population will not read some of the so called, "Critic's" and question exactly what they are talking about, they get paid for these comments?