An Italian movie about two siblings who take up opposing political ideologies in the 1960s and ’70s might sound too allegorical to bear. At what point do they stop being kiosks and start being people? When they fall in love with the same woman? Please.
And yet this is very much what Daniele Luchetti’s ripe, ferociously acted comic drama “My Brother Is an Only Child” is about.
Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio) is a left-wing communist with a sleepy, rumpled face. He takes a factory job in his small town to better harass its owners. He holds rallies. He flirts with terrorism. His younger brother, Accio (Elio Germano), is a Latin scholar who happens to be a serious, card-carrying member of the Fascist Party.
Accio and Manrico are living with their parents and sister in the same crumbling apartment, but the tension between them is only partly a matter of politics (only once do we see them on opposite sides of a riot).
Accio is drawn to Francesca (Diane Fleri), the soulful fellow lefty Manrico is dating. Accio tells her he’s a fascist the way you might tell someone you like “Rubber Soul.” She’s taken aback. She can’t quite believe that her boyfriend’s charming, otherwise reasonable brother believes in so much that she doesn’t.
But the beauty of this movie comes from how the characters are not their politics. The brothers are at odds, but Luchetti keeps the bond between them tight, and the movie light, for as long as it can stand lightness. (There are great old Italian pop songs everywhere.)
As Accio, Germano is full of surprises. He creates a gradually sensitive and sensible character, someone who is open to the intellectual expansion that comes with maturity. On edge and at peace, he’s like the Al Pacino of the first half of the 1970s.
“My Brother is an Only Child”
R for language and some sexual content. 1 hour, 40 minutes. Directed by Daniele Luchetti; written by Luchetti, Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli; starring Angela Finocchiaro, Anna Bonaiuto, Diane Fleri, Elio Germano, Luca Zingaretti, Riccardo Scamarcio. Opens today at the Chez Artiste.
