Wait Until Spring, Bandini

I'm not sure what I expected from Wait Until Spring, Bandini. Perhaps a heartwarming coming-of-age story with meaning, but that was setting my sights too high. I have no idea what the point of the film was. At the heart is a poor Italian-American family with a horrible patriarch, vindictive matriarch, and annoying children. Joe Mantegna frequently fights with his wife, Ornella Muti, and while on one of his benders to let off some steam, he's hanging out with his pal, Burt Young. Joe merely complains about his poverty and problems, but Burt has taken steps to improve his life: he's advertised his handyman services in the paper. He takes pity on his friend and sends Joe to take his latest work order instead to help him get some extra income. What a mistake!

It turns out, the employer is Faye Dunaway, a rich and bored widow who wants Joe to become her gigolo. Joe accepts and actually leaves his family to live in her manor house, eat gourmet meals, smoke cigars, wear expensive clothes, and never lift a finger - all the while knowing that his kids miss their father and his wife can't afford to buy simple groceries. How do we root for this guy? We can't root for Faye, either, since she knows what she's doing. We can't even root for Ornella, since the one time Joe brings home a wad of money, she throws it in the fireplace rather than buy her starving children some food. I know she's upset because of how her husband "earned" the money, but she should have sucked it up and fed her kids. Again, I'm not sure what the point of the movie was. Perhaps no one else knows, either.