Looking for an Echo (1999) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is a good thing to watch a lesser known works that turn out actually better than you expected. Now you got another one here, with Armand Assante and Daine Venora (Mrs. Michael Mann), who had been long ill-used in Hollywood blockbusters like "Judge Dredd" and Bruno's "The Jackal" respectively. But you should know that they deserve much, much better things than those, and you will understand what I mean after watching this little-seen film.
"Looking for an Echo" (the title comes from Kenny Vance's 1996 album) is about an Itarian middle-aged man Vince (Assante) whose wife had passed away, and lives now with his son, an aspiring musician. And Vince himself, back in the 1960s, was the leader of the hit chorus group "Vinnie and the Dreamers," but is now totally retired from spotlight. But when he meets and falls in love with a nurse Joanne (Venora), who happens to have been a huge fan of his group, he gradually feels the impulse he had long lost. As Vince reunites with his old buddies, he knows, and we know, that his love for good-old songs are never dead.
Though my summery may lead you to think that the film goes on with a big showdown in sight, the fact is different. The story gives more stress to the budding relations between Vince and Joanne (and his son), showing how they come to love (or understand) each other. Songs are playing a major part, but their roles are aptly subdued, with a script that cleverly avoids clithed moments. The film unfolds very quietly, letting us into the close picture of family and friends that every viewer can relate to. In this sense, "Looking for an Echo" resembles Tom Hanks film "That Thing You Do" with a difference that the former gives us a credible picture of former stars living the present while the latter directly leads us into the world of relations surrounding a pop-song group.
The film refers to many chorus groups like "The Dells" and "The Harptones," so if you can sing a song or two of them, you will like the sound you can hear in the film, which is vividly realized by Kenny Vance, who was the leader of "Jay and The Americans." Many say rightly that this is a homage to doo-wap songs even though, as I said, the relations between characters come to the forefront in the story. But it is also true that its moody soundtrack does justice to the film's title and your expectation based on that.
Finally, though the film looks as a whole slightly light-weight, it gives a rare occasion for American film to introduce the love between man and woman aged more than 40. This is a bit surprise because the film succeeds in that place too, especially when you see Diane Venora clad in fancy dress. And I wonder why she has to be wasted in a pointless Hollywood remake, doing a very thankless role while she can enliven the screen single-handedly as is shown here.

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