Reviewer's grade: B
Accio (Elio Germano) is a pubescent Italian boy living in the early Sixties with his parents, sister and his older brother Manrico (Riccardo Scamarcio). After leaving seminary because of a "conflict of conscience," Accio has a hard time readjusting to family life. Manrico has become very active in the local Communist party, so in the interest of being as obnoxious as possible Accio joins up with the local Fascists.
The brothers' political conflicts mirror their familial relationship: Manrico functions as the dashing, if unreliable, favorite, while everyone in the family wonders where Accio came from to turn out the way he has (hence the title). Basically an examination of family life through the lens of a country grasping for a political identity, "My Brother Is an Only Child" suffers a bit from giving too much of the community's political life and not enough of the familial politics that gives it all personal meaning.
Despite a few shortcomings, it's still a fascinating portrait of Sixties-era Italian politics and its effect on different generations of Italians. Playing exclusively at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art. NR
"?Mike Robertson
Trailer
