Anna isn’t your typical, old-fashioned Italian mother. Instead of staying home and cooking and cleaning for the male members of the family, she’s out winning beauty contests and sleeping around.
Her story unfolds in the Italian soaper “The First Beautiful Thing,” directed by Paolo Virzi.
It is seen through the eyes of her son, Bruno, a pot-smoking teacher at a vocational school who would rather forget his childhood. But Mama is dying from cancer; and Bruno, at the insistence of his sister, visits her in the hospital.
Seeing the old lady unleashes a flood of memories about growing up with a free-spirited mom who looked like Ava Gardner.
Micaela Ramazzotti is sexy as the young Anna, and the film is sometimes sweet and funny. Overall, however, it’s sappy and predictable — fun to watch, perhaps, but instantly forgettable.