Inheritance, Italian Style

Directed by Doug Bremner, Inheritance, Italian Style follows a large Sicilian clan as they assemble over a frantic few days to divide the family property. It’s a familiar yet workable setup that is, for the most part, employed to amateurish and hopelessly underwhelming effect by Bremner, as the filmmaker, working from his own script, delivers a sluggish, uninvolving endeavor that contains few, if any, attributes designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest – with the arm’s-length atmosphere perpetuated by the low-rent production values, second-rate performances, and grating, overbearing score. (The latter remains akin to nails on a chalkboard in terms of total annoyance and aggravation.) There’s little doubt, as well, that Inheritance, Italian Style‘s failure is exacerbated by Bremner’s ongoing reliance on sitcom-level instances of ill-advised humor, including an older character played by a young actor in eye-rollingly awful makeup, and it goes without saying, naturally, that the picture wears out its welcome long before arriving at its anticlimactic final stretch – which, despite Bremner’s obvious good intentions, ultimately cements the film’s place as a woefully incompetent debut that feels much, much longer than its 99 minutes.

*1/2 out of ****