Memorable Performance From a Child, Especially

Rating: Null/10 (19 September 2003)

The first 45 minutes of the film was filled with high energy comedy in the European,Italian fashion. Many times it crossed into slapstick humor. But all is taken well,in setting up the main characters for the second part of the movie, and substantiates the way it ended. The movie is not perfect. Roberto Benigni's rapid fire diaglog is annoying at times. Nicoletta Braschi as Roberto's wife wasn't given much to do. Her most effective scene was when she demanded to board the train for Nazi concentration camp to join her husband. Meanwhile, young Giorgio Cantarini as Benigni's son was perfectly adorable and believable. He acted and thought as a young child who loved and obeyed his father would, and was the key figure in the end. Some question remained unanswered. When the friendly Nazi doctor called to give Benigni "very important" message, we were unexpectedly given something else, totally incongruent to the story. Some people would also object to the light-touch handling of the holocaust,but not every movie having the holocaust as background has to be grim and stupefying. Life is Beautiful gave another interpretation of it, and we have to examine this horrific event in different artistic presentations to understand the totality of what happened.
S.Q.