gradyharp (17 May 2013)

Italian Men and the Trials of Relationships

4 SINGLE FATHERS is a bit of trifle that serves well on an evening whenmental exhaustion cries for something brainless but not insulting. Teamwritten (Craig Carlisle, Gabriele Muccino and Liz Tuccillo) anddirected as a first effort for Paolo Monico, the story is light, a bitdisconnected, and unable to make up its mind as to whether it is abroad comedy or a touching melodrama. The story involves four Italian American men who have married fourAmerican women and are in a stage of tenuous stability: Jacopo(Alessandro Gassman) is a dentist who is separated from Ilana (ColleenDunn) and sleeps around offering advice to others regardingrelationships; Dom (Francesco Quinn - son of Anthony Quinn) is anarchitect separated from Julia (Sarah Rafferty) but longs forreconciliation; Ennio (Joe Urla) is a real estate agent whose wifeSarah (Margot White) stuns him with a request for a divorce; George(Lenny Venito) is a NYPD cop married to Maria (Mary Testa) in anabusive relationship. After a barroom struggle the four men becomefriends - Dom offers Ennio a formula to get his wife back, George'sfellow cops play a trick on him trying to make George feel better butthe trick results in George leaving Maria unwisely, Dom is called toRome because of his failing mother and returns to plead with Julia tostart over. So we have a quartet of men, two start as single fathersand the remaining two end up as single fathers. Unfortunately there isno real resolution to any of the situations - perhaps the writers couldnot figure that out or wanted the audience to fill in the blanks. The four single fathers are played by likable actors without much inthe way of character development. The women are played to appear asnegative forces. The action takes place on the streets of New York andin apartments, except for a brief excursion to Italy. At the end itfeels that if the writers gave as much empathy to all the men as theygive to Francesco Quinn's character the movie would have found anaudience. As it is it feels like a work in progress. Grady Harp