Review: Everybody Wants to be Italian

Everybody Wants to be Italian
4 Lloyds
Rated R for some sexual references

“Women are sacred. They need to be treated like ladies, not passing cargo vessels.”

There lies the main lesson in this incredible movie, Everybody Wants to be Italian. It’s been a long time since we’ve laughed out loud through an entire movie. But, this flick will tickle your funny bone in a number of places. Jay Jablonski, who stars as Jake, agreed with my description of Everybody Wants to be Italian as a “backward chick-flick.” Jake is a fishmonger who’s spent eight years trying to win back his ex-girlfriend. She’s moved on. As a matter of fact, she’s married with three children. Fed up with their friend’s unwillingness to let go of the past, Jake’s friends set him up on a blind date with a beautiful Italian woman from Boston’s North End. (Or so they think.) Even though Jake is convinced such a woman would never consider dating a non-Italian, a quick crash course in how to fake it, may prove just the trick to help him learn to love again.

Writer-director Jason Todd Ipson credits his wife for the title of his second feature film. When they first met, Ipson asked if she was Polish or Czech. She responded saying she was Italian. Ipson replied saying, “I’m Danish.” His now wife then said, “But you want to be Italian…Everybody wants to be Italian.” With that phrase, the seed for a movie was planted. Everybody Wants to be Italian casts Jay Jablonski in his first starring role on the big screen. Ipson actually wrote the lead role of Jake Bianski with Jablonski in mind. While working on the movie Unrest, Jablonski said Ipson took him out for lunch one day and told him he was writing a script for him. Why? Because Ipson says when he auditioned Jay for Unrest he “knew he was going to be a huge star.” In my opinion, Ipson is dead on with his assessment of Jablonski’s acting skills. He’s a natural and this could be just the tip of the iceberg of some great things to come from Jablonski. The combination of Ipson and Jablonski could very well be the next Burton and Depp dynamic duo of Hollywood.

Everybody Wants to be Italian is categorized as a romantic comedy. But, as already mentioned, it’s a romantic comedy with a twist. Instead of casting a group of ladies looking for love, we have guys talking about true love. It’s here we find the genius of the movie which truly crosses the gender barrier connecting the chick-flick genre with the macho-guy genre. This is not your everyday run of the mill love story. Instead it’s a delicate dance of two worlds coming together, searching for true love, without all the cliché trappings.

Even though Everybody Wants to be Italian carries an R rating, it is much tamer than some of the PG-13 movies on the market these days. This is really a mild R and it’s here we discover the need for yet another rating from the MPAA. While Everybody Wants to be Italian should not carry a PG-13 rating, it is suitable for the 17 and up crowd. While the R-rating carries the warning viewers under the age of 17 must view with an adult, the stigma of the R rating makes one think the movie is full of sex, drugs, drinking and bad language. Such is not the case with this movie. While it’s Rated-R for “some sexual references,” the movie Juno, which carries a PG-13 rating, had many more sexual references in it than this flick does! While there’s some cursing and swearing, again, it’s rather tame. As a matter of fact, there are no f-bomb drops at all. The bottom line is this, don’t let the rating scare you. Know that Rated-R carries the warning that viewers need to be 17 and up, and you will not be disappointed with the movie.

Everybody Wants to be Italian is currently opening in limited release status. However, do not be fooled by that. This movie deserves a wide release, and hopefully it will expand to screens everywhere quickly. This is a funny movie with incredible comedic timing. In a sea of rude and crude love story flicks, I applaud Ipson for his talent of working for his humor. The script is intelligent, the humor is wonderfully refreshing, and nothing is drowned out by overbearing music. Many times producers bury bad script under loud music. Ipson knows he’s working with a fantastic script, and as a result, he also knows his dialogue can indeed stand alone. There’s no need to bury it, because there are many lessons to be learned about relationships throughout the movie.

We absolutely loved Everybody Wants to be Italian and in our 5 Lloyd rating system, we’re giving it 4 Lloyds.

Enjoy the show!
Dr. Rus

P.S. I also had an exclusive interview with Jay Jablonski on my Live Line talk show. If you’d like to listen to the interview, all you have to do is click here!