From Scratch is a touching picture of late love. Sincere affection radiates from every scene, even in periods of strife or difficulty. The Netflix miniseries is based on Tembi Locke’s memoir, which she created with her sister Attica Locke.
Though it’s fair to want to paint a late love in a rosy glow, it makes From Scratch less clear-eyed, complex, and ironically intimate. If you want emotional romance, the outcomes are still appealing. In Lino’s (Eugenio Mastrandrea) words, it needed more acid or salt to balance the sweetness.
Scratch began in a city so beautiful it drove artists nuts. Amy (Zoe Saldana) is a law student in Florence in 2000 who wants to be an artist. Lino, a cook she meets on the street, becomes her most important souvenir.
By Thanksgiving 2002, he’s relocated to Los Angeles to be with her, and from then on their lives are entwined as they marry, pursue their dream occupations, adopt a daughter, and deal with Lino’s cancer diagnosis.
Saldana and Mastrandrea’s wonderful chemistry makes us wish them well. Scratch smooths out their fairy-tale relationship, making it boring and predictable. The first chapter’s love triangle lacks intensity because Amy isn’t interested in her other suitor (Giacomo Giannotti).
Later narratives rush to smooth over any rough patches between Amy and Lino, so crises like homesickness or parental guilt barely have time to leave an imprint.
When the series includes Amy and Lino’s families, it becomes more interesting. Danielle Deadwyler (Till) provides Amy’s big sister Zora with caustic wit and blunt language, while Keith David plays Zora and Amy’s father Hershel.
From Scratch pivots from a sweet but predictable girl-meets-boy narrative to a philosophical contemplation on how love can connect communities and cultures, fresh horizons, and ancestral roots.
From Scratch is eight hours long. It’s easy to interpret fondness into the series’ loose pacing, given how gently the camera views Lino and Amy’s lengthy stares, meandering chats, and wedding family turmoil. It’s hard not to wonder if a less partial storyteller could have streamlined some of the drama’s recurrent themes or tightened some of its arcs to help concentrate its emotions.
Someone with more distance might have given the story’s crises more complexity. Cancer is a cruel beast, even if Lino wastes away fairly pretty, and Saldana taps into the rawest edges of pain as Amy sobs or screams following bad news. The gradual end, as hopes for a long, healthy life fade, appears to make it more painful. Scratch avoids the less relatable, less appealing emotions of disease.
A buddy who’s lost a partner tells Amy that remaining with a sick partner isn’t for everyone. Scratch highlights the issue so Amy may dismiss it; this love narrative has no room for uncertainty or weakness. It’s a noble reaction that may reflect the Lockes’ experience.
A fictitious version of the story shouldn’t idealize Amy and Lino’s relationship.
From Scratch lives on pleasantness. The series is filled with photographs of lovely residences and postcard-perfect panoramas (L.A. isn’t Florence, but From Scratch finds beauty in its interminable stretches of concrete) — and artfully served Italian food savored with almost orgasmic delight.
Mild comedy about domineering parents and strange culture clashes, and many romantic or familial happiness situations.
From Scratch is a good weekend movie if you want to swoon, cry, and order too much Italian food on Postmates. It may not capture the intricacy of its characters or their experiences. What tear-streaked love letter does?