Love's Brother

Synopsis: In an Australian rural town in the 1950s, Italian brothers Gino (Adam Garcia) and Angelo (Giovanni Ribisi) work in a local Italian café. Handsome outgoing Gino has a girlfriend Connie (Silvia de Santis) but the plainer more retiring Angelo constantly writes letters to Italy via the local matchmaker Signora Carmelina (Eleanor Bron) hoping to snare a bride. When he is shown the photo of the beautiful Rosetta (Amelia Warner) Angelo slips the photo of his brother in with the marriage proposal. After a 12,000 mile journey to Australia, Rosetta arrives to find things are not what she expected.

Love’s Brother is a sweet, gentle and amusing story of brotherly love. Being orphans, (albeit, adult ones) Gino and Angelo feel a special responsibility towards one another. They are part of a close-knit Italian community attempting to make its way in a new land while keeping the spirit of their homeland alive around them. The bond with the homeland is represented in many guises: the ecstatic launch of the first espresso machine in Australia; an Italian village mural on the café walls whose wistful scenes help the characters to magically work through their problems. Just as the film itself spins an engaging story, so the character of Rosetta creates a story for herself – a fiction enabling her to travel so far for a man she has never met.

The four principal actors are very engaging. The performance of Adam Garcia has, at times, a forced quality, but his gorgeous looks and enthusiasm for his character go a long way! Sylvia de Santis (with a filmography of mostly Italian films) brings to Connie a truthfulness and sense of the difficulty migrant girls had being accepted in those days in a new culture. Amelia Warnergives Rosetta a vulnerability and strength combined, and she is so exquisitely beautiful that every lingering camera shot is a delight. Giovanni Ribisi delivers a stand-out performance blending intensity, shyness, softness and determination in a performance of great subtlety.

The impressive cinematography is by Andrew Lesnie who shot the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Filmed around the Hepburn Springs area, the film has a picturesque, languid and graceful mood. The overall set production convincingly recreates the rural backwater of the 1950s with its distinctive Italian small community feeling. The melodic score by Stephen Warbeck enhances the romantic mood.

The film is not without its flaws. Writer/director Sardi (who wrote Shine) is perhaps a little too close to his material and a bit precious about it. His determination to not use sub-titles (even in scenes where we see Rosetta departing from Italy) is rank nonsense. The implication that the ‘new Australians’ seldom utter a word of their native lingo detracts from the film’s authenticity. Nor does Barry Otto with a caricatural Italian accent as Father Alfredo help.

Despite these flaws, we do get swept up the fate of the characters and remain in suspense to see just which brother Rosetta will end up with. Overall, the genuine romanticism of Love’s Brother is a refreshing change from the more ‘ocker’ fare that so often characterizes Australian film and it is a great reminder of the heritage of our multicultural land.

 

 

Want more about this film?

    

Want something different?