Wishing and hoping

Will Smith and Mena Massoud in Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin.

Genie, wishes, lamp … none of that ringing a bell? Well, that’s a first.”

That’s a wry early ­exchange between the genie (Will Smith) and the street thief Aladdin (Cairo-born Canadian actor Mena Massoud) in Guy Ritchie’s live-action song-and-dance remake of Disney’s Aladdin.

It was a relief to hear it as I went into the movie wondering, in this day and age, whether a reviewer would need to issue spoiler alerts before revealing that a genie comes out of the lamp and grants his new master three wishes.

Of course, that relief may be misplaced. The genie is not infallible. He makes errors of judgment. The movie that came to mind as he pondered the “grey areas” of wishes was the hilarious original of Bedazzled from 1967, starring Peter Cook and Dudley Moore and directed by Stanley Donen of Singin’ in the Rain fame.

Like Cook’s Lucifer, this genie can grant ­wishes that do not work out as the recipient hoped. Unlike Lucifer, he’s not wicked, but he has been living inside a lamp — “brass, brass, brass”, he notes of his domestic aspect — for 10,000 years and now that he’s out he wants to live a bit. There are weights to lift, drinks to drink, rap dances to dance, royal handmaids to court.

The opening scenes, before we meet the genie, are a colourful, dazzling introduction to the hustle and bustle of the desert kingdom of Agrabah. The choreography (Jamal Sims) and production design (Gemma Jackson, from Game of Thrones) are first rate. As Sims said in a recent interview: “Sometimes we don’t need to speak to express ourselves. It’s all there in the way we move.’’

Aladdin moves through the Arabian bazaar with a monkey on his back, figuratively and literally. There’s Abu, a cheeky costumed capuchin that, like his owner, has light fingers. “I steal only what I can’t afford … and that is everything,’’ Aladdin says. Later, the figurative side is scathingly put to Aladdin by the Grand Vizier (Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari): “You were born worthless and you will die worthless. Only your fleas will mourn you.”

There’s a chance this will change, however, because of two people Aladdin meets for the first time: Princess Jasmine (London-born Naomi Scott, who is of Indian descent), who has left her palace in disguise to mix with the people, and then, of course, the genie. The handsome pickpocket and the beautiful princess connect.

The Grand Vizier is the bad guy. Like Aladdin, he has two weights on his shoulder. The living one is a sarcastic macaw. The more dangerous one is that he’s sick of being the second-best man in the kingdom and plans to unseat the Sultan (Iranian-American actor Navid Negahban).

Second-best man is an important phrase here. While Princess Jasmine is the Sultan’s daughter, no woman has ever ruled the kingdom. Her job is to find a husband, which leads, among other things, to a scene-stealing cameo by Billy Magnussen as a wooing prince from Scandinavia.

All of this is set up with intelligence and ­humour. There may be no lock, stock and two smoking barrels, but the director known for his crime comedies does add some menace to proceedings. Princess Jasmine’s Bengal tiger, for ­example, did make me think of Brick Top’s pigs in Snatch (2000).

But it is Smith’s genie who grants our wishes, and more than three of them.

We all know that Robin Williams’s almost off-the-cuff performance as the genie in the 1992 animated movie was one of his best roles. Well, Smith comes close to that and, unlike Williams, he has to show his face. The best CGI character, by the way, is the anthropomorphic magic carpet.

Smith is an almost human genie, which makes him more unpredictable, more fun and more ­attached to Aladdin. In one sense, this is a buddy movie. His rendition of the songs Friend Like Me and Ali Baba, both tweaked from the original, are wonderfully physical and visually spectacular.

The original composer, Alan Menken, oversaw the musical score, with a few changes here and there and with help from the American ­songwriting duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who won an Oscar for La La Land (2016). One of the new songs written for this film, Speechless, sung by Princess Jasmine in a #MeToo moment, is a highlight.

Aladdin is a thoroughly enjoyable two hours in the cinema. And as the PG rating indicates, it’s also just about the only Ritchie movie you can take your kids to.

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LIFE IS GAY ... UNTIL YOU HAVE TO TIE THE KNOT IN FRONT OF PAPA

You are a handsome young Italian man living in Berlin. It’s Easter so you head home, as you do every year, to visit your parents in a small town in central Italy, where your father is the mayor. You will play Jesus in the local road-to-crucifixion procession, as you always do.

This time, however, you will do something you have never done before: come out as gay and introduce your parents to your live-in fiance, who has travelled with you. Like you he is Italian, from Naples. You have just proposed marriage and he has accepted.

Your mother is accepting, your father less so. His response is to laugh, as though you are telling a joke. He also hates musicals, which will matter later. Could it get any worse? Well, yes: the local Franciscan monk could stop by.

This is more or less the set-up for the lively, jovial, sensitive Italian comedy My Big Gay Italian Wedding, directed by Alessandro Genovesi and based on the successful off-Broadway, then Broadway, play by Anthony J. Wilkinson.

This English subtitled release goes with Wilkinson’s title. When the film came out in Italy last year the title was Puoi Baciare Lo Sposo, which I believe means “You can kiss the groom”. A more ambiguous title for an unambiguous movie.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life,” Paolo tells Antonio, “with someone who pretends to be someone else.”

What unfolds, mainly in Civita di Bagnoregio, is Antonio (Cristiano Caccamo) and Paolo (Salvatore Esposito), both struggling actors, working through the ups and downs of tying the knot in this medieval Italian town. It would be far easier to do it in Berlin but Antonio’s mother (Monica Guerritore) is insistent. She hires famous Italian wedding planner Enzo Miccio, who plays himself and who has a wardrobe of suits for which I would beg, borrow or steal.

Antonio’s father (Diego Abatantuono) looks like Papa Hemingway and behaves like him too. Also in town, for our comic benefit, are the rich young woman who owns the Berlin flat and the just-arrived new flatmate, Donato, an older man who, by his own account, “has some issues”. They tailed along for the ride. Donato (Dino Abbrescia) is a scene stealer. One of Antonio’s former girlfriends also turns up.

It all becomes a bit over-the-top and silly by the end — a goat becomes an important character — but that is the plan.

This movie is easy on the eye — the people, the location, Miccio’s pinstripes — and also a lot of fun.

Aladdin (PG)

National release. 3.5 stars

My Big Gay Italian Wedding (M)

Limited release. 3 stars