Tea With Mussolini

Tea With Mussolini is a half-fiction, half-autobiographical account of director Franco Zeffirelli’s World War II experiences in northern Italy. The audience didn’t leave the theater disappointed with what they saw. They just weren’t overwhelmed, either.

Still, one does not get to see a film that displays the talents of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Joan Plowright, Lily Tomlin, and Cher too often. Each actress does her best with what amounts to be a weak script, based on a chapter from Zeffirelli’s autobiography.

The movie covers the years 1935 through 1945. We are introduced to the "Scorpioni," a group of English and American women living in Florence. The women, all wildly eccentric, have a love of Italian art.

Included in the group are Lady Hester (Smith), the widow of the former British ambassador; Arabella (Dench), who restores frescoes, always in the company of her faithful pooch, Billyboy; Mary (Plowright), a secretary to an arrogant clothing manufacturer; Georgie (Tomlin), a lesbian archeologist; and finally, a jet-set (before there were jets) art collector named Elsa (Cher).

Lady Hester, oh so British, disdains Americans, leading to predictable sparks with Elsa. That’s secondary, however, to the war in Europe that looms over Italy. Lady Hester arranges for a meeting with Italian leader Benito Mussolini. Over tea, the exploitative dictator "who makes the trains run on time," assures the widow that no harm will come to the women.

The movie jumps forward five years. Dovetailing a subplot which features Mary’s care of an orphan named Luca (actually a young Zeffirelli), we follow their exploits during the war.

It is at this point that the screenplay’s weaknesses take hold. The Scorpioni stand up to the Italians, Fascists, Anarchists, the German army, and at the end, even the liberating Scottish army. All of the events seem to be a staging point for each actress to get in and do her thing on camera, then disappear for ten minutes.

The uneveness of the story begins to wear thin as the old biddies seem to have more of a concern for preserving their lifestyles than their own lives. It just doesn’t add up.