Shadows in the Sun

The humor caught my attention. So did the really great car, and the lovely scenery, which according to imdb.com, is really Italy. Not one of the filming locations included California or Toronto, which is nicely refreshing.

Tragically, it's supposed to be about a genius writer, but the director/writer made the mistake of trying to be his character. The writing lacked brilliance or memorability. The example of a description of a sunset disappointed. Although the writing was certainly above average (if spelled correctly), it wasn't anything to write home about. It was the kind of thing you imagine being taught in an evening creative writing class at your local community college.

Fortunately, the film didn't have the budget for a sex scene, so I escaped that piece of tedium. The whole film seemed so tragically blase! I feel truly sad for all that, because I loved the actors, and enjoyed the story very much, I just felt cheated, somehow, as if spotting the canvas texture under a recently purchased oil and realizing that my purchase, while beautiful, wasn't original. This "print" (of what I am not sure) is certainly still good enough to hang in one's home, but not valuable enough to leave as an inheritance.

The better moments, which include most of the humor, largely avoided cliche. The worst moments included an amateurishly executed (or filmed) tango, and that piece of bad writing that made me so unutterably sad. Rottentomatoes.com gave the film 20%, which I thought was probably generous of them. Still, I'd recommend it, if only for the parts that were well done. And I have no problem recommending bad movies, because I'm a fan of learning by experience.