Life Is...(not necessarily so) Beautiful

Rating: Null/10 (13 November 1998)

Saw it. Didn't knock me out. Think the piece ramps up nicely UNTIL arrival at the camp, at which point the momentum falters.
-Cute Kid Gimmick (everybody knows the drill) is not enough to carry as much "weight" as it winds up supporting.
-Nice Benigni visual/juxta sequences BEFORE he is deported; not as interesting after, save the German-Italian translation bit.
-The cinematic/content integrated interiors become disconnected without significant purpose in the second part.
-Romantic thread starts nice...but really doesn't resonate (again, all after the deportation)
Not a waste, but also NOT the home-run I expected.
Wait, one more thing-the camp was not particularly threatening. He tells The Kid a tall-tale, but there is no perspective chosen at all. Tell it from The Kid's POV so we can see it with innocence while imagining the horror the tall-tale is covering up, OR show the brutal limits of the father's reality AND the scenes in which he reshapes it for The Kid. Instead we get middle-of-the-road CLOWNERY with no reference point to make the story really ring.
Call me...The Script Doctor.