Film Reviews

Mambo Italiano

• Rating:
• Director: Emile Gaudreault.
• Starring: Luke Kirby, Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno, Mary Walsh, Peter Miller.
• Details: Can / 90 mins (15PG).

The Italian family unit, according to Gaudrealt's film, is
reactionary-but-dysfunctional, conservative-yet-hysterical. So when Angelo (Kirby) sets up home with his old school pal Nino (Miller), the news hits his parents (Sorvino and Reno) as if it were a death. The pity of Mambo Italiano (a gay Canadian-Italian take on My Big Fat Greek Wedding) is that it concentrates on farcical racial stereotyping when there is a quieter but more profound movie aching to step out of the closet - Angelo and Nino are their respective parents' only sons, and even if the men decide to adopt, two sets of blood-lines are doomed to wither on the vine. Director Gaudreault has fun with Sorvino and Reno's attempts to save face in the face of public ridicule, subtly posing the question as to who is really in denial about the nature of relationships, but the soft-focus humour is an opt-out and represents a missed opportunity.

Review by Garreth Murphy