Nello, Neri Marcore, is a single 35 year old who's sent by his father, Giancarlo Giannini, to the city of Bologna to work and find a woman. Papa, a ladies' man, is the tailor for the Pope in Rome and Nello is a bit of a disappointment. He's a teacher of classics and a virgin. He's also a bit of a nerd. At a training centre for the blind he meets Angela, Vanessa Incontrada, a rich socialite whose eyes were damaged in an accident. Nello falls for her completely despite her father warning him that she specialises in making men fall in love with her so she can leave them. In fact Angela has a much more immediate aim to use Nello to get back at her former fiance.
The uncomfortable mix of comedy and pathos in this film is not helped by Avati's rather unsubtle, picture postcard approach. Angela's character seems not to belong to the 1920's when the film is set, she doesn?t look the part in either makeup or costume and her behaviour just doesn?t fit with the times. And Nello's character is irritating more than endearing. The one success in the film is Giancarlo Giannini as Nello's father. His description of dressing a new Pope is a delight and his experience as a performer shows. Avati often seems to want to make films of more substance than he actually achieves but his heavy-handedness in direction overwhelms any possibility of subtlety.
