Made in Italy Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!

A London artist and his estranged son try to mend their relationship as they work together to repair a dilapidated house in Italy.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Made in Italy Plot Summary and Synopsis

Jack Foster is getting divorced from his wife Ruth. Her family is selling the art gallery, where he works as a manager, which devastates Jack.

He decides to buy the gallery by possibly selling the old Italian home he owns with his estranged father Robert, a famous artist. The house belonged to Jack’s mother and Robert’s wife, an Italian woman who died in a car accident.

Jack takes Robert with him to Italy. Jack tells Robert he needs the money to buy the gallery from Ruth’s parents. When they arrive, they find that it is completely rundown. Kate, an estate agent, comes to survey the home.

She tells them the house is in a bad condition, but if they fix the house, it could be worth more. Jack tries to clean but then decides to sell the house as it is.

Jack meets Natalia at the restaurant that she owns. Robert looks at photos of his deceased wife and the whole house reminds him of her. Robert decides to help Jack restore the home.

They hire locals to renovate the house. Robert and Jack befriend some of the locals including Natalia and invite them to a party at the house. Natalia tells Jack that she has an eight-year-old daughter and she and her husband are divorced, but her husband lied about her so she only gets partial custody.

A buyer comes to look at the house but is not satisfied. Kate tells Robert that the house needs more work. Robert asks Natalia for help. Natalia and her daughter begin helping renovate the house.

Robert tells her that after his wife died, he sent Jack away to boarding school to keep him away from all the reminders of his mother. He also tells her that ever since she died, he could not drive and could not paint.

Kate comes over and sees the house almost fully done. A couple arrives to look at the house, and decide they want to buy it. Meanwhile, Jack tells Natalia about his impending divorce and how Ruth has taken everything from him, which she relates to. He tells her how he could not paint like his father but thought he could make the gallery a success, but his father never helped.

Later, he enters his father’s workspace and sees painting after painting of his mother, and of himself. Robert discovers him, and Jack wants to know why he has locked away all his memories and his childhood.

Robert says he thought it was the fastest way to get him out of pain, and Jack screams at him that he never let him in and never talked to him, He begins wrecking the space, and Robert holds him as they collapse onto the floor. Later, the two talk about her for the first time, sharing memories of her, and Robert begins crying, recounting how he was so wrapped up in painting that he let a young Jack walk to school.

Robert was supposed to be in the car, and he says it is his fault. Jack hugs his father and comforts him, and tells him about his divorce from Ruth.

The next day, at the house, the couple who decides to buy the house disrespects it and in response Robert tells them that he will not sell the house to them. Jack gets angry. Robert admits he cannot give the house up and Jack accuses him of never having any intention to sell, and returns to England.

Robert comes to see Jack, telling him he sold his London home and has enough to buy Jack out of his share of the Tuscany villa. He urges him to buy the gallery back. Jack asks him why he never came, and Robert says Ruth told him Jack did not want him to, that it was too much pressure.

Robert tells him he is going to live at the Italy home and host painting holidays. Jack goes to the gallery, and when Ruth says she will not accept any offer for the gallery, he instead presents her with the signed divorce papers.

In Italy, Robert leads a painting class where Kate is his student. Jack arrives and tells Robert, it was never about the money, and that all he wants is his father.

He then meets with Natalia, who wants to know why he did not say goodbye. He tells her that he saw her with Marzio, and she explains he is the father of her child and she has to maintain some relationship with him.

Made in Italy Ending

They make up and decide to take their relationship further.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).