The script has some brilliant ideas, but the film is lack of interest, art and even heart

Rating: 1/10 (25 January 2010)

According to some people, Life is Beautiful is one of the best movies of all time, and for some, the best movie of all time, yes, because the movie seems sweet, right? How? There is a family, we watch how the father and the mother meet, oh! how romantic and warm it is. Many people like such things, the meeting stories. Sometimes, it begins with saying in a rainy day... In the first half, we see some superficial slapstick comedy. Comedy is different, tragicomic is different, Life is Beautiful is not tragicomic till the final that shook me a little. It is clearly seen that Benigni inspired from Charlie Chaplin movies, but if you ask me, his film, Life is Beautiful cannot be even "C" of Charlie Chaplin movies. People say that the first half is comedy, the second half is tragedy. No. There is nothing devastating or shaking in the movie. Benigni runs after only romance and comedy and little drama, but he does not show anything to us about the conflict or the intensity of the situation. If the story had been told in a different way, with a different mood (tragicomic and serious), it could have been a masterpiece. The idea is brilliant (a father who tries to conceal the (bitter) fact from his little son by saying all this is a game in a concentration camp), but the execution is zero. However, also the movie was excruciatingly boring, I don't know how did it happen, but for me it is the same as Fellini's Otto e Mezzo in terms of lacking interest. The (too heavy?) style including cinematography is lack of effect, lack of cinema feeling, thus the movie is lack of real art and even heart! I couldn't feel anything for the situations of the characters personally and the heartwarming, heartbreaking tone of the film didn't seem me sincere (I mean made for audiences) If you think that I exaggerate too much, please watch The Pianist or Schindler's List again to be sure (both are excellent movies by the way) Roberto Benigni was not the right person for this project I believe. His approach, execution is the same as street theater or child theater which no objection, but for such a story, almost unbearable. Yes, also the movie is not realistic, but it is not important, welcome to this fantasy, an alternative history or an inventive story, but as said, the movie can't carry that great idea.