Hey folks, Harry here with the latest report from Quint regarding Santa Barbara and he's found a film none of us have heard of called LOVE'S BROTHER, which he seems to love. So either it's really good - or he has just gotten a case of snow blindness out there in the blizzard that's just destroying everything in Santa Barbara. Really terrible how it's just snowed everyone in, traffic's a mess... quite tragic. Anyway, here's the report Quint managed to get out of the frozen tundra he finds himself stuck in!
Ahoy, squirts. Quint here with a rave about a little film called LOVE'S BROTHER, the directorial debut from the Academy Award nominated screenwriter of SHINE, Jan Sardi.
LOVE'S BROTHER is by far the best film I've seen at this festival, the first true-blue surprise flick that completely won me over. I've seen some good stuff so far... I'M NOT SCARED, THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS and BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS to name a few, but none of them hit me as dead on as LOVE'S BROTHER.
Mark my words, this film will be the launching point for many of tomorrow's stars. Specifically, I predict in the next few years you'll see Adam Garcia's face on the cover of many teeny-bopper magazines as well as the jaw-dropingly beautiful Amelia Warner posing in the pages of Maxim or another like magazine to the glee of all red-blooded heterosexual males in the world.
The film opens with a pale, quirky man opening up a letter. He unfolds the note, written in Italian, and his own picture falls out. His eyes darken and his face falls. This is Angelo, played effortlessly by Giovanni Ribisi. His younger brother, Gino (Adam Garcia), is handsome, charming and confident, the total opposite of his older brother. He also has a serious girlfriend, Connie (played by Silvia de Santis) who keeps nagging him for a proposal.
These brothers are Italian immigrants living in Australia in the '50s. Their parents are dead, so the only close family they have are each other. In order to show respect to his older brother, Gino tells his girlfriend that he can not get married until his older brother does. In Australia at this time, Italian men outnumbered Italian women by 5 to 1 and Angelo has had to resort to sending off to Italy for a wife.
But he keeps getting rejected, hence the notes being sent back with his picture.
So we come to the point where we find out about Rosetta. She's young, beautiful, but dog poor and has put herself on the market. Angelo doesn't want to go through the rejection again, the months of sending letters back and forth before being let down has taken its toll on him. Gino insists on one more letter sent to this one perfect lady. Give it a shot. Angelo is shown a picture of Rosetta and his defenses go down immediately and the pen goes to paper.
He finishes the letter, gets his picture... a not so flattering shot of him standing next to his always handsome brother. He cuts the picture in half, gets his photo and then looks to the photo of his brother... He ends up sending the photo of his brother.
I know you think right now that you can see how the film unravels... The woman sees the hunk, accepts and due to their brotherly love Gino pretends to be Angelo and wacky mayhem ensues. THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS AND DOGS, essentially. I know you're thinking that because that's what I thought, too. But that's not what happens.
From the time Rosetta arrives, she is told what happened, that she took her vows in Italy with Gino in mind, not Angelo. That she made a fictional history, a first meeting, the first kiss, so when she arrives alone in this strange land she's not married to such a stranger only to find that she fell in love with the wrong person.
The next thing you'd expect is a huge wedge of jealousy to form between the two brothers, but once again Sardi side-steps the obvious and instead keeps their relationship strong, without an ounce of jealousy injected. They care for each other so much that's not even an option.
I really, really fell for this film. The photography is gorgeous. While watching the movie I was continuously taken by just how beautiful the cinematography on this film was. Then the credits rolled and it all made perfect sense. The Director of Photography for the film was noneother Andrew Lesnie, who is not only one of the sweetest and most kind people I've ever had the pleasure to chat with, but also the genius that shot THE LORD OF THE RINGS and BABE: PIG IN THE CITY.
The performances are out of the park. Giovanni Ribisi is one of those actors who seems to be either absolutely terrific or nails-on-a-chalk-board cringe-worthy, depending on the director, script and character. For instance, look at how laughably bad he was in THE OTHER SISTER to how great he was in Raimi's THE GIFT. He shines here. He oozes shy likeability, a restrained innocence. He's quirky enough to be funny, but is restrained enough to keep the performance real and not over the top.
If Ribisi is the heart of the film, then Adam Garcia is the charm. My buddy Kraken keeps comparing him to Ewan McGregor in the way that he just exudes an effortless charm. I think he was also checking out Adam's tight body, but I can't be too sure of that one. Don't ask, don't tell and all that.
At any rate, Kraken isn't too far off with that correlation. Garcia shows a lot of natural talent. It's clear that he's really comfortable in front of the camera. I believe that Garcia will be the next big thing, an Aussie that can act and is loaded down with charm. The only problem I see is he's taking the beefcake roles in mediocre teeny movies. It'll take more choices like LOVE'S BROTHER for him to really break out. If he finds the right part mark my words, he'll explode on the scene.
Speaking of stars of the future, I have to talk about Amelia Warner, one of the hands down most beautiful women I've ever seen in my life. I thought I recognized her during the film and a quick trip to IMDB confirms I've seen her before in the great flick QUILLS, as the underage tart that Michael Caine lusts after. She is flat out amazing in this film. Her character doesn't talk much, but gazing into her eyes you have an immediate understanding of her state of mind. Her hazel eyes reflects her character more than 10,000 words can. Her beauty is just stunning and it's easy to see why a person can fall in love with her with one grainy photo.
Strangely enough, LOVE'S BROTHER is one of the only films I've seen so far that DOESN'T have American Distribution, specifically no Miramax logo ran before the film, thank God. I guarantee Miramax will try their damndest to get this film, but I hope Sardi and his producers hold out for a company that will actually give this film the push and priority it deserves. Miramax loves collecting good movies, especially good foreign movies, but they seem to have a phobia of actually letting anyone else see it.
For those of you in the LA or Santa Barbara areas there is another screening of LOVE'S BROTHER this Saturday, February 7th, at 7:30pm at the Metro. The director, Jan Sardi and rising star Adam Garcia will be there to answer questions after the screening. I'm working on getting interviews with the two, so keep an eye out for that. If you're around the fest, I can't recommend this film highly enough. Here's hoping it gets picked up by a distribution company that will actually let you folks see the film. I'll keep my ear to the tracks on this one.
That's it from me, squirts. I'll be back soon with some more movie reviews and (hopefully) some interviews. 'Til that day, this is Quint bidding you a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
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