At some point in our lives, we all want to get away from it all: our responsibilities, our families, our friends, everything. Rafael Belvedere, a 42-year-old Buenos Aires restaurateur, reaches that point in "Son of the Bride," a wonderful new film written by Juan Jose Campanella and Fernando Castets and directed by Campanella.
"Son of the Bride," which was an Oscar nominee for best foreign language film and nabbed numerous film festival awards, stars Ricardo Darin, whom Milwaukeeans recently saw in the stellar "Nine Queens." As in that film, Darin is brilliant here as the cell-phone-toting, work-obsessed, over-stressed owner of a popular restaurant opened by his father and named for his mother, who now suffers from Alzheimer's and lives in a home.
Rafael's work is too much for him, his always-strained relationship with his mother -- she never thought him successful and now that he is, she can't see it -- remains a thorn despite her illness and his family life is a mess. He gets along badly with his ex-wife and has an up and down relationship with his daughter, for whom he rarely makes time. To top it all off, he's got a beautiful -- and much younger -- girlfriend that is beginning to tire of Rafael always putting work ahead of their relationship.
When an Italian company wants to buy out the restaurant, Rafael demurs. When his father tells him he wants to renew his vows with Rafael's mother and give her the church wedding she wanted but never got, he's skeptical. But when he suffers a heart attack and an old friend, who has suffered a major catastrophe of his own, steps into the picture, Rafael reconsiders his life: his family, his work and his relationships with both.
There is more than just heartache, stress and trauma in "Son of the Bride," though. There are also some brilliantly comedic moments, as when Rafael and his friend -- who claims to be a successful actor, but really works as an extra -- appear in a restaurant scene of a movie being shot. Their serious conversation is punctuated by breaks of filming in which they must appear to be talking, but without making a sound. It is a pressure valve for the film and works like a charm.
Like "Nine Queens," the evenly-paced story is set against a backdrop of economic crisis in Argentina, where businesses are being shuttered, banks are unable to function properly and even the church must nickel and dime parishioners to survive. These films are breaking out of the mold of portraying South American countries as banana republics or monstrous dictatorships and their maturity and depth makes them some of the most interesting and satisfying pictures to hit the big screen.
Campanella has assembled a fine cast, led by Darin, that also includes Hector Alterio as Rafael's father, Norma Aleandro as his mother and Natalia Verbeka ("Jump Tomorrow") as his girlfriend, Nati. Eduardo Blanco plays Rafael's boyhood friend Juan Carlos and deftly pulls off the conflict between his character's confident swagger and inner pain.
"Son of the Bride" opens Fri., June 28 at Landmark's Downer Theatre.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
