Tea with Mussolini (DVD)

Tea with Mussolini (1999) starring Joan Plowwright, Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Cher, Lily Tomlin. Set in Italy in the 1930s and 1940s, and based on director Franco Zeffirelli's childhood in the '30s, this film follows a group of Englishwomen living in Italy who believe that Mussolini will protect them from the gathering clouds of war. To further complicate matters, they find themselves the protectors of a boy named Luca whose mother has died and whose father refuses to claim him. It's all rather charming, even though we pass through a war with them, and it ends happily. Grade: B+