August 26, 1997

Roseanna’s Grave

(12) Jean Reno, Mercedes Ruehl, Polly Walker, Mark Frankel. Dir: Paul Weiland. UK/Ita. 1997. 98 mins.

Several decades ago this would have been perfect fare for Marcello Mastroianni. As it is, it gets Jean Reno in an Italian-American romantic comedy about a small-town trattoria owner whose wife is dying. She wants to be buried in the local graveyard but spaces are in short supply. Can other ailing folk be kept alive long enough? Will the ex-jailbird heading back home for his stash of cash fill the holes up? Can the cantankerous old lawyer be persuaded to sell some land for extra burials? An old-fashioned fuss in a funeral plot.