MADE IN ITALY

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Alex

Jack Foster (Micheal Richardson) is the manager of an upscale art gallery. His soon to be ex-wife Ruth tells him that her family is selling the gallery in a month, devastating him. He insists on buying the gallery himself, and since he has no money, considers it could be possible to sell the old Italian home he owns with his father Robert (Liam Neeson), a famous artist who he is deeply estranged from. The house belonged to Jack’s mother/Robert’s wife, an Italian woman who died in a terrible car accident. Ruth scoffs at this, since Robert is notoriously selfish and has never been to Jack’s gallery.

Jack picks up Robert to take him to Italy. The trip to Tuscany is deeply awkward, with Jack trying to make conversation and Robert not very receptive. Jack tells Robert he needs the money because he and Ruth are going to buy the gallery from her parents. Robert warns him the house is not going to be what he remembers of it – when they arrive they find it’s completely filthy, dusty, and run-down to Jack’s horror.

The estate agent Kate (Lindsay Duncan) comes to survey the home. Robert tries to flirt with her, but she tells them the house is horrible, but if they fixed the house it could be worth something. Jack attempts to clean it, with little help from Robert, and decides they’ll just have to sell the house as-is. Robert posits they could keep it, but Jack has no interest. He calls Ruth to tell her his father has agreed to sell the house, but she tells him she didn’t think he was serious and the gallery is on the market.

In town, Jack goes to a small restaurant in town and meets the owner, Natalia (Valeria Bilello). She tells him she has always loved the house. He asks if she wants to buy it, and she says she could only pay him in risotto. Meanwhile, Robert looks at photos of his deceased wife – the whole house reminds him of her. Robert then agrees to help Jack fix the place up.

Kate introduces them to locals who begin renovating and patching up the house. When Jack intends to paint over a huge blood red and black mural on the house’s wall, Robert lashes out, telling him “those who can’t do manage their wife’s art gallery” and saying he will refuse to do any more help it he paints it over – Jack realizes that Robert, who has not produced art in a long time, is painting again.

Robert and Jack go into town and have dinner at Natalia’s restaurant. While there, Natalia’s ex-husband Marzio tries to get a table with a new woman, but Natalia refuses him. When he doesn’t back down, the diners all come to her defense. Robert and Jack befriend some of the locals including Natalia and invite them to the house. Natalia tells Jack that she has an eight-year-old daughter and she and her husband had a contentious divorce, and he lied about her so she only gets partial custody.

Jack gets drunk at the party and gets angry with his father in front of everyone, wondering why he never says his mother’s name and that he let her house fall apart. He tells Natalia that Robert never spoke about his mother once with him after she died. Marzio shows up and bothers Natalia some more.

After a buyer isn’t satisfied with the house, Kate admonishes Robert to make the house more commercially viable. Robert, impressed with Natalia’s restaurant, asks her for help. He tells her how after his wife died, he sent Jack away to boarding school to keep him away from all the reminders of his mother. He also tells her that since she died, he couldn’t drive and couldn’t paint.

Natalia and her daughter begin helping renovate the house. Robert invites Natalia to be their first dinner guest as a thank you, claiming he can cook, which Jack knows isn’t true. Jack buys ragu from a woman in town, which Natalia immediately recognizes – she herself made it for the woman, to everyone’s laughter. Afterward, Jack takes Natalia to the old tire swing he used as a child, and ends up falling into the lake below. Natalia joins him and they kiss.

Kate comes over and sees the house almost fully done except for the big mural on the wall, which Robert hasn’t painted over. He explains he had to put the pain from his wife’s death somewhere. Kate reveals to him that she couldn’t have children and her husband got his secretary pregnant and so she moved to a new life, though they both agree you can never really leave the past behind. She tells him the house should be a great sale.

A trashy couple arrives to look at the house, vaping and taking selfies the whole time. They decide they want to buy it. After, Jack tells Natalia about his impending divorce and how Ruth has taken everything from him, which she relates to. He tells her how he couldn’t paint like his father but thought he could make the gallery a success, but his father never came. Later, he enters his father’s workspace and sees painting after painting of his mother, and of himself.

Robert discovers him, and Jack wants to know why he’s locked away all his memories and his childhood. Robert says he thought it was the fastest way to get him out of pain, and Jack screams at him that he never let him in and never talked to him, He begins wrecking the space, and Robert holds him as they collapse onto the floor. Later, the two talk about her for the first time, sharing memories of her, and Robert begins crying, recounting how he was so wrapped up in painting that he let a young Jack walk to school. Robert was supposed to be in the car, and he says it’s his fault. Jack hugs his father and comforts him, and tells him about the divorce – to which Robert says “thank god”.

Jack goes to see Natalia and spots her with Marzio, and leaves without speaking to her. At the house the trashy couple drones on, calling the mural a piece of shit, and Robert tells them he absolutely will not sell the house to them, subtly delighting Kate. Jack is angry, having lost his opportunity to sell. Robert admits he can’t give the house up, Jack accuses him of never having any intention to sell, and returns back to England. He brings home a piece of art of him and his mother. He ignores Robert’s phone calls.

Robert comes to see Jack, telling him he sold his London home and has enough to buy Jack out of his share of the Tuscany. He urges him to buy the gallery back. Jack asks him why he never came, and Robert says Ruth told him Jack didn’t want him too, that it was too much pressure. Robert tells him he’s going to live at the Italy home and host painting holidays. Jack goes to the gallery, and when she says she won’t accept any offer for the gallery, he instead presents her with the signed divorce papers.

In Italy, Richard leads a painting class, where one of his students is Kate. She makes art inspired by his mural, which she says has grown on her. Jack arrives and tells Richard it was never about the money, that he wants a father. He then meets with Natalia, who wants to know why he didn’t say goodbye. He tells her he saw her with Marzio, and she explains he’s the father of her child and she has to maintain some relationship with him. They agree to start fresh.

In the house, Robert and Jack hangs art of his wife/Jack’s mother finally. Together, they put the final touches to complete the mural.

Jack Foster (Micheal Richardson) manages an art gallery owned by his soon-to-be ex-wife's parents. When she tells him they intend to sell it, he is determined to buy it. In order to get the money, he asks his estranged father Robert (Liam Neeson) to sell the house they own together, left to them by his Italian mother who was killed in an accident when Jack was a very young child.

They discover the house is totally run down and begin to renovate it together. Jack falls for a local woman named Natalia (Valeria Bilello). Through the process, Jack and Richard mend their relationship, as Richard opens up about how he sent Jack away after his mother died to try to spare him pain.

When Robert can't bring himself to sell the house, Jack angrily returns to London. Richard sells his London house and gives Jack the money to buy the gallery, choosing to live in in the Italy house and teach painting. Jack doesn't buy the gallery, instead, giving his ex divorce papers, and moves to Italy as well, reuniting with Natalia and choosing to finally have a relationship with his father.