Liam Neeson suffers with his son in real life in A Villa in Tuscany

Already the title in Spanish with which he debuts in Argentina Made in Italy invites you to dream (no, not in the sense that it is an invitation to sleep). one listens Tuscany and imagine green landscapes, fresh air, flowery fields, good wine, better pasta, a palace with an open view. And what it says in it Liam Neesonand smiles slightly: maybe I don’t have to hit or kill anyone here.

This is all correct, and adds another recurring aspect to the actor’s filmography Relentless research: his character is in mourning, he is a widower again.

We’ve said that once since his wife died Natasha Richardson in 2009, the actor of Schindler’s List he wants his protagonists to feel the pain of losing a loved one, usually their partner.

And here the bet in this sense is doubled, given that the one who plays his son is Micheál Richardson, the eldest son of Neeson and Natasha Richardson, who in honor of his deceased mother legally changed his surname in 2018.

Well, Raffaella, wife of Robert (Neeson) and mother of Jack (Micheál Richardson), also died in a car accident, but in a car, in Italy.

But the actions don’t start on the title estate, but in the United States, where Jack runs an art gallery for his wife’s parents, who wants a divorce and is determined to sell it. The young man has one option left: to buy the premises, and for this he must convince his irritable father, with whom he has not spoken for months, to sell the villa in Tuscany and get the half that corresponds to him. You have a mandate of one month.

Chianti, pasta and reunion

It’s not your typical reunion and redemption film between a separated father and his son, but it hits him in the post. Both characters will travel from England to Tuscany and find the villa abandoned twenty years ago in a terrible state. What follows, there, on a wall, is the mural that Robert painted, with strong red brushstrokes, after his wife’s death.

Aided by a real estate agent (Lindsay Duncan, the theater critic of Birdman), they have no choice but to put him in condition if they want to sell the property. And while Jack meets another young woman divorced from Valeria Bilello, owner of a restaurant in the village, Robert goes back to painting, without abandoning his antipathy and ostracism.

Don’t ask yourself the questions that should be asked (how can someone have a large mansion in Tuscany and not visit it or keep it for 20 years? father and son will face the pain of Raffaella’s death together?), and I prepare to see Liam Neeson in a role for him lately atypical.

First feature film by actor James D’Arcy (Anthony Perkins in Hitchcock, the master of suspenseand who we will see next year Oppenheimer), is beautifully photographed and crafted to please its audience.

“A villa in Tuscany”

Good

Dramatic comedy. United Kingdom / Italy, 2020. Original title: “Made in Italy”. 94 ‘, SAM 13. Of: James D’Arcy. With: Liam Neeson, Michael Richardson, Lindsay Duncan, Valeria Bilello. Rooms: Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta, Showcase Belgrano and Norcenter.