What’s this all about?
Cher plays a widow whose name doesn’t matter. She agrees to marry a man that she doesn’t love; then almost immediately has sex with that man’s brother. Then a bunch of things that I feel like might be Italian-American stereotypes happen. Then there’s a very brief bit of hijinks, and everything works out in a way that’s somehow both unbelievably far-fetched, but also predictable.
Or, one could also say: Cher and Nicholas Cage star in a romantic comedy. Cher is a widow so hurt by the loss of first husband that she felt her “bad luck” came from being so in love the first go around that she didn’t follow the normal traditions. She is determined to be smart and safe with her 2nd marriage and choose a reliable man who she didn’t love because he could provide for her. Her fiancé leaves to be with his dying mother in Italy asking her to do only 1 thing for him as she planned their wedding; he wants his baby brother that he has fallen out with to come to the wedding. This leads to Cher finally falling in love again, despite her determination not to.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays Ronny Cammareri, the younger brother of Johnny Cammareri. Ronny is some kind of maniac baker opera fan amputee. You know the type.
Or… Nick also has a story of love loss. That tired old tale of your older brother distracting you at work, causing you to accidentally chop part of your hand off, causing your horrible fiancée to leave you due to being maimed. Then your overly dramatic emotions cause you to not only be closed to love, but also hate your brother for ruining your life.
Who else is in this one?
Cher plays a stereotype of a middle-aged Italian-American woman.
Olympia Dukakis plays a stereotype of an older Italian woman. She does it better than Cher does.
Danny Aiello plays a boring Italian-American man who no one likes.
Vincent Gardenia plays Cher’s dad, a cranky Italian-American.
Frasier Crane’s dad is in this one, too, but I honestly don’t know why.
A different view might say that it is a cast of wacky and extreme characters played by some well known and skilled actors.
Did you see that?
I’m cheating here. I’m going to talk about something that we all saw, but shouldn’t have. There’s a two part running gag in which John Mahoney (Frasier’s dad) sits in an Italian restaurant with a much younger woman, which ends each time with that woman (I’m not sure if it’s the same woman both times) throws a drink at him before storming out. He then orders a “glass of vodka.”
It’s a fairly funny bit, especially in this melodrama pretending to be a comedy.
Late in the movie, however, it gets turned into a subplot in which Olympia Dukakis eats dinner with Frasier’s dad, and gives him the wisdom of her age (Literally “Don’t shit where you eat.”). They walk home together, and he wants to have sex, but she sends him home alone.
This entire subplot is a boring waste of time that doesn’t move the plot or develop the characters.
This movie is honestly full of scenes like this that don’t need to be in the movie. It’s like they made the movie, then realized it was only 47 minutes long, so they shot a bunch of crap about plumbing, dogs, and grocery store accounting. -Michael
I hate to go back to one of the best known and most quoted scenes from such a classic movie, but the scene where Nick tells Cher that he is in love with her only to be slapped in the face and told “Get over it!” So much sass and bold expression takes me back to my youth. – Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
There’s a chaotic scene at the end of the movie in which the entire cast seems to have gathered in Olympia Dukakis’ kitchen to await the return of Danny Aiello. It’s full-on chaos as the screenwriter tries desperately to wrap up all of the meandering plot loose ends, and the characters are correspondingly frazzled. Except for Nick. He’s suddenly calm, polite, and well-mannered.
The juxtaposition is well-played, and funny. -Michael
This movie is full of delightfully fun bits of charm and humor that at times can go to the brink of being too dramatic, but stop just short. My absolute favorite example of this is when Cher meets Nick and finds out why he is so grouchy and hates his brother so much. It’s such a ridiculous story and acted out with so much commitment it had me literally squealing in joy and laughter while watching it. – Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
In his introductory scene, Nick goes on an unhinged rant about how his brother ruined/stole his life. The story makes absolutely zero sense. Nick screams and yells like a moron, and dramatically threatens to kill himself. I feel like they were trying to establish a deep-seeded pathos for a character whose story basically boils down to, “I injured myself at work because I wasn’t paying attention, and I’ve decided to blame everyone else for it, and be a dick about it for the rest of my life.”
This scene also dramatically establishes Nick’s character as an amputee, which causes him exactly zero problems for the rest of the film.
It’s a bad scene, badly acted. -Michael
I enjoyed the scene at the opera the least. They were showing Cher’s softer side and were making Nick caring, but he just looked a bit like an oaf. – Sarah
How was the movie?
The movie really struggles to be a comedy. There are a handful of genuinely funny bits, but there are a lot of problems, too.
The age gap between Danny Aiello (54 in the film), Cher (41 in the film) and Cage (23 in the film) is just too much. Aiello and Cage are supposed to be brothers, for Christ’s sake.
The characters, in general, also lack clear motivation. Johnny wants to marry Cher, even though he doesn’t love/need/want her. Cher wants to marry Johnny even though she admits that she doesn’t love him. Donny loves Cher because she forced him to eat a rare steak. The moon is somehow involved, but that’s only explained (if at all) in Italian.
Maybe the filmmaker could have established that Aiello needs a woman to take care of him, as his doting mother is dying, and Cher is a convenient choice. How about Cher wanting to get married because she feels weird being a 41-year-old woman living in her parents’ house? Couldn’t Donny have wanted to seduce Cher to stick it to his brother, on whom he blames his own failed engagement, and then he genuinely develops feelings for her? Perhaps Olympia Dukakis’ microwave could be broken, and that’s why she goes out to dinner with Frasier’s dad.
I don’t know. These bushes are all beaten around, but never really established.
As it is, the movie just feels like a bunch of people racing through scenes, who are unaware and uninterested in their own motivations, all trying to out “goomba” each other. It makes me not care about any of it.
Also, there’s not nearly enough “comedy” in this “romantic comedy.” -Michael
The age difference was a bit noticeable for me, but I do want to note that while Cher was 41, her character was 38 and no other ages were given so one is just left to assume.
All in all it was an enjoyable movie that made the evening go by fast. – Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it?
Not so much. It felt like a rough draft of a Hallmark movie with better actors, but not better acting. I didn’t hate it, and I’d watch it again, if Hallmark went out of business or something. -Michael
Absolutely! – Sarah
Where can I watch it?
It’s free on both Tubi and the Roku Channel.
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