‘My Brother is an Only Child’": Story set in fascist Italy takes the easy coming-of-age route

On the one hand, the new Italian film “My Brother is an Only Child” is a believable re-creation of a certain time and place. On the other hand, maybe ya had to be there.

The movie, a hit in Italy, goes back to the late 1960s and early ’70s. We see most of the action from the perspective of Accio (Elio Germano), a notably unpleasant young man who joins the local fascist group. Partly he does it as a reaction against his charismatic older brother Manrico (Ricardo Scamarcio), a communist organizer.

In its tale of a young guy’s attraction to the brutal simplicity of fascism, the movie carries an echo of Shane Meadows’ recent “This is England.” But here we know less about why Accio opted for the political movement, except that Mussolini left behind some impressive buildings in Rome.

There’s an interesting movie to be made on that topic, on the way that resentment among disappointed people leads them to rail against the “elites” and other imagined villains. But “My Brother” is almost entirely concerned with the personal story between the brothers.

Part of Accio’s mixed feelings come from the fact that from an early age he pines for his brother’s girlfriend (Diane Flero). But Accio’s identification with Mussolini is tested by sibling loyalty and other complications of his sex life.

Accio is impossible to love, so Elio Germano does a reasonably good job of just keeping him watchable. Italian heartthrob Scamarcio gets less screen time, but is appropriately dashing.

Director Daniele Luchetti is less interested in delving deeply into these lives than he is in keeping it all bopping along in coming-of-age movie style. He wrote the script with Sandro Petraglia and Stafano Rulli, a screenwriting team best known in the states for “The Best of Youth,” a truly moving six-hour miniseries.

This film covers some of the same era, a time when the personal and the political mixed in an explosive way. The DVD of “The Best of Youth” is well worth checking out, but “My Brother” settles for much less.