The Pizza Miracle

The Pizza Miracle deals with a mostly absent son returning to say farewell to his dead father. And possibly flipping the bird to God.

The film opens with a decidedly strange telling of a story entitled The Madonna Of The Eels, about a guy who heads to the beach every day sifting through sand to gather eels, to sell and make money for his family. One day, he sees the Virgin Mary, and is dissuaded from collecting any more. His family are distraught. Shot in black and white, with classical composition and slow storytelling, this seven or eight minute bit is overlong and baffling. It does feature a nice, if melancholy score and excellent photography.

From there, we head to the Father's funeral - and his Son (Matt Berry) is having a quiet one-sided conversation. Slipping back into a mixture of memory and imaginary consolation, the story continues in the pizza parlour where Father and Son have very different attitudes to making pizza. The place is a dungeon - fly infested, poorly lit, and no food is ready for customers. This part is livelier - the two personalities clash superbly. The Father, lackasdaisical in his profession, with a caustic and dry sense of humour - the Son, uptight and fastidious. They seem almost disinterested in one another's achievements, but eventually come to an understanding.

The film is well-staged, the pizza parlour scenes and performances have a ring of classic personality clash comedy. However, a topsy-turvy narrative, and ill-defined moral spoils what could have been an excellent comedy short.