# Tea with Mussolini (1999)

### reviewed by
Jonathan Richards

    DAMES AT TEA

    TEA WITH MUSSOLINI
    Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
    Screenplay by Zeffirelli and John Mortimer
    With Maggie Smith, Judi Dench
    De Vargas    PG    117 min.

Franco Zeffirelli's reminiscence of his formative years in Mussolini's fascist Italy is pretty irresistible, in spite of a persistent shallowness of story and a touch of weakness for self- glorification. What it has going for it is Zeffirelli's reliable bonfire of surface vanities, including a nice evocation of period and glorious camerawork by David Watkin ("Out of Africa"); and best of all, a cast of actresses as delicious as the ice cream sundae disparaged by one of their number as an American vulgarism.

Dame Maggie Smith is Lady Hester, widow of the former British Ambassador and the doyenne of a clutch of pixillated British lady expats in Florence known as the Scorpioni. Lady Hester is a full-bore snob, and when she snorts "Americans!", of course we love it. Among her circle are Arabella, a dotty romantic artist played by Dame Judi Dench, whose career was crowned with a Tony this week, and Mary (Dame Joan Plowright), secretary to a philandering Italian businessman. Mary finds herself with the care and feeding of young Luca (Charlie Lucas), the motherless and unwanted illegitimate son of her boss. Luca, the end titles tell us, "grew up to be an artist and helped with the making of this picture." A degree in rocket science will help you understand that Luca is Zeffirelli himself.

Rounding out this bevy of talent is that American vulgarism herself, Elsa (Cher), a former showgirl who marries rich old men and gives them a bang for their buck before they go on to their next reward ("He's an angel," she confides of the latest, "or soon will be....")

The Scorpioni are at tea in an elegant hotel dining room when their protected world is rudely interrupted by shouting blackshirted hooligans smashing the stained glass windows and letting in an unpleasant whiff of the real world outside. Troubled, the ambassador's widow travels to Rome to see Mussolini, who smarmily reassures her over tea that she has nothing to fear.

But of course she does, they all do, though when war breaks out they stubbornly refuse to leave the country that is, after all, their home. They're rounded up as enemy aliens and incarcerated, though they are soon moved to hotel quarters in San Gemignano -- courtesy, Lady Hester is sure, of her friend and protector Il Duce. At this point the teenage Luca (Baird Wallace) returns from school in Austria, where his father had sent him to learn to be a good Nazi. Instead, he devotes himself to the ladies and to the Resistance, and eventually the war turns out well.

Smith and Dench reprise their characters from "A Room with a View", but these ladies are so good that you gladly accept the type-casting. Best of all is Joan Plowright, who plays a lovely scene with young Luca and a puppet stage that anticipates his future calling. Cher in her best scenes reminds us what a wonderful and charming actress she is, and dazzles us with what can be truly called a sculpted beauty. Lily Tomlin is good in a smaller role.

It's an up-and-down ride, but it would be a shame to miss a movie that offers such pleasures just because of a few shortcomings. Take "Tea" and see.

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