I was a solid 6, maybe even 7, out of ten and I’m tired of pretending it wasn’t. Suddenly we were all too good for feelgood movies? It was nothing special, but it was good. Good acting all around, good costume design, cute little story, I loved the sideplot about the letters to the italian guys wife and the ending where he had a gun all along was neat.
Sure it’s the kind of slop the crew from the Sopranos would hail as being absolutely fantastic 
but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good movie. I hate when people suddenly insist something sucks because shitty people like the thing too much.
I liked it, too! I forgive for making it ANOTHER story about an Italian American when it should really be about an African American because it was taken from the white guy and his son’s recollections of what it was like. That said, I wouldn’t mind hearing the more important and missing view from the point of view of Don Shirley.
I think winning an oscar really ruined it’s legacy. It was “just” yet another “you’re alright white man”-movie told from the perspective of the white man, and it was honestly pretty good. The personal drama and so on was good.
A movie from Don Shirleys perspective would’ve been so cool though.