Even though most of its dialogue is in English, the movie floats on foreign-film clichés: the adorably grubby urchin (Cory Buck as the young 1900), the exotically beautiful muse (Melanie Thierry as the siren who tempts him to jump ship), the Euro-saccharine score (by Ennio Morricone, shockingly).
Yet a trio of fine performances keeps it from curdling into magical schmaltz. Roth projects a disarmingly elegant presence, and he's equaled by Clarence Williams III as jazzman Jelly Roll Morton, who challenges 1900 to a piano showdown in the film's exuberant centerpiece. As the trumpet-blowing narrator, Pruitt Taylor Vince (''Heavy'') lends dramatic heft, even when asked to enact a slapstick seasickness scene more suited to the late Chris Farley.
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