Tea with Mussolini (1999)

TEA WITH MUSSOLINI is based on Franco Zeffirelli's autobiography, 
when, as an abandoned young man in Florence, he was watched over 
by a cackle of crusty Brit widows.  Grand dames Maggie Smith, Judi 
Dench, and Joan Plowright play three of the aforementioned expa-
triates, while Cher also appears as a glamorous American who was 
passing through at the time.  I tried to have TEA on Saturday af-
noon at the thin-walled Raleigh Grande and promptly fell asleep.
Was I the victim of a boring movie?  Spiked water in the water 
fountain??  Italian lunch buffet three hours earlier???  Who 
knows; who cares.  I left at the hour mark, apparently at the 
exact moment that the movie got better.  Or so said my companion. 
With Lily Tomlin, Charlie Lucas, Baird Wallace, and Claudio Spad-
aro as the man who made the trains run on time.  (Rated "R"/~110 
min.)

Grade: N/A
              
Copyright 1999 Michael J. Legeros
Movie Hell is a trademark of Michael J. Legeros       

Originally posted to triangle.movies as MOVIE HELL: June 27, 1999