Francis Ford Coppola, who always has woven his own life into his films, looks again at family rivalries involving a dominating father and sons who don't always get along, but with less passion than has gone before. The new film is "Tetro," opening today, and it is strengthened by a remarkable performance by Alden Ehrenreich, making his big screen debut as Bennie, the younger brother.
As always in Coppola's films, his stamp is present, but much of the heat is absent. The film is his first from his own screenplay since "The Conversation" of 1974, which I still consider a movie as fine as he's ever made, in a filmmaker's pantheon with the first two "Godfather" films and the stunning "Apocalypse Now." If "Tetro" is not quite as good as those four, it does not smudge Coppola's reputation, and it has the marvelous look and sound that Coppola and his long-time editor, Walter Murch, always bring to the screen.
Vincent Gallo disappoints as the title character, disaffected and unwilling to challenge his own father, Carlo Tetrocini, is a famous conductor played by the always splendid Klaus Maria Brandauer. Is his dominant presence meant to resonate as Coppola's own father, also a well-known musician and conductor?
Tetro has run to Argentina with his lover, the sensuous lovely Maribel Verdu, a proper lover, and Bennie comes to visit, to find out what is going on. Tetro is part of the culture scene, and he goes to parties, and he comes into contact with a well-known critic called Alone, played with cynical, nicely reserved style by Carmen Maura. All the parts are there, but Coppola fails to give the story enough tension, enough meaning, enough power to reach the heights he has reached before.
At the Plaza Frontenac
–Joe