Scherzetto review – Toni Servillo brings gravitas to a dithering Neapolitan ghost story

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Venice film festivalThe Venice fixture plays an illustrator haunted by his boyhood in Mario Martone’s part spooky, part sentimental oddityIt’s always good to see the veteran Italian star Toni Servillo at Venice; in fact, the festival is pretty much unthinkable without him. But this initially promising prospect – adapted from a novel by Domenico Starnone – is a minor, quibbling tonal oddity, unsure if it wants to be scary or sentimental. Servillo lends it as much gravitas as he can: his mere pre