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Storyline
Niccolo (Mac) Vitelli is the eldest of three brothers and leads their family after their beloved father dies. Their father was a builder and his sons continue in this family trade. At first, they work for Polowski, who does shoddy work and cheats on his jobs. When the brothers can no longer take being employed by such an angry vitriolic boss who takes no pride in his work, they set up their own company. Together, Vitelli Brothers Construction builds houses with pride and care. However, Mac turns out to be an overbearing workaholic, with obsessive concern about the quality of their work and incredible attention to detail. His intensity and driven ambition precludes a happy family life and eventually drives away his two happy-go-lucky brothers from his nascent construction empire. Written by
Tad Dibbern <DIBBERN_D@a1.mscf.upenn.edu>
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Did You Know?
Trivia
The answering machine message that is played at the end of the movie is an actual message that
John Turturro's father left him before he died.
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Quotes
Niccolo Vitelli:
[
Being outbid for a desired house lot]
Cocksucker! Cuntlapper!
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Connections
Referenced in
New York at the Movies (2002)
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Soundtracks
"MAMA"
Music by C.A.Bixio
Italian Lyric: B. Cherubini
English Lyric: Harold Barlow and Phil Brito
Courtesy of Southern Library of Recorded Music
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I think there's a tendency for actors who decide to direct their own movies to leave absolutely everything up to their colleagues, the actors, including driving the story. I couldn't tell if this film was scripted or improvised, but there's an awful lot of long, no-dialogue shots of faces and activity that don't advance the plot, what there is of it. A surprising amount of what dialogue there is, is in untranslated Italian-which didn't bother me, except for the fact that-again-it didn't advance the story much. After about half an hour of establishing 4 or 5 characters without much action or tension, I still couldn't tell where the film was going. It seems to be about holding one's work to high standards, but then what? No dramatic tension, no imbalance to resolve, no conflicts to keep track of. Two stars for good acting and competent staging; two stars for lousy script, absent directing, and nonexistent editing. I can't be accused of spoiling anything if I merely point out that this film left me plenty of time between dialogue and story elements to ask myself about the plot, the story, the acting, the characters...it didn't draw me in at all.