Weekend Movie Forecast: The Soloist Vs. Tyson

The bio-pic Il Divo delves into the mobbed-up life of seven-time Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Stephen Holden at the Times calls it "sensational. From its bizarre opening image of the migraine-prone Mr. Andreotti with acupuncture needles stuck in his head—a picture of prime minister as human porcupine that could be out of a Fellini film—Il Divo is a tour de force of indelibly flashy imagery. The density of violent crime in this speculative history of skulduggery in high places equals that of I, Claudius, The Sopranos and the Godfather movies. In [Toni] Servillo’s portrayal, Mr. Andreotti, the ultimate Teflon politician—he was sentenced to 24 years in prison in 2002 in connection with the assassination of a journalist but was eventually cleared of the charges—suggests a Peter Sellers parody of Henry Kissinger with the deadeyed gaze of Peter Bogdanovich."