Life is Mostly Simplistic - (Minor Spoilers)

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 2003)

Life Is Beautiful - Review
LIB is about Guido (Roberto Benigni) and how he deals with life. Set in Italy during World War II, the story follows Guido in two stages of his life. First, Guido meets then courts Dora (Nicoletta Braschi). In the second part, Guido along with Dora, now as his wife, and son Giosue (Giorgio Cantarini) become prisoners of war and sent to a concentration camp.

Guido takes whatever life serves him and turns it around to make it funny. In one scene, he takes a horse that has been marked by vandals with derogatory remarks and changes the writing into artwork, masking the original words. He then uses the horse to help woo Dora. When Guido and his son Giosue end up together in a concentration camp, Guido turns the situation around by pretending the camp is part of a game he entered his son into. The many rules Guido invents include explanations about German soldiers, military uniforms, and camp personnel speaking only in German. There is a points system to rate the 'contestants' (fellow POWs), and the 'prize' is a tank. The youth buys off on the increasingly ridiculous lies that Guido is forced to tell to try and keep the truth that they are POWs from his son.
The first part of the movie is comical but leaves viewers uninvolved. It does well to set up Guido as a joker with a kind heart, but ends up running a bit too long to accomplish only that.
The second part of the movie brings us some important problems with Guido and Giosue's situation. Giosue is your average incredibly inquisitive child. He sees what's going on around him, as well as hearing rumors on death. The camp smells terrible and has a limited selection of food. Even at five years old, it's difficult to believe that Giosue would continue to follow his father's words about 'the game' in the face of the overwhelming and unavoidable reality of life in a concentration camp. Somehow, Guido's horror-stricken campmates find the energy to give the game a little push (or at least to not spoil it), which borders on the unbelievable. Somehow, Giosue is able to fit in with the German children without talking, and is able to reap some of the benefits of being on the side of the prison-keepers as opposed to the prisoners.
In the end, we never learn of the consequences of Guido's lies. One hopes that Guido's deceit doesn't affect Giosue adversely, but dishonesty of such a magnitude (especially with children) rarely comes without repercussions. People generally have a feeling about when they are being deceived, and this causes changes in how they deal with and trust in people. While it might seem innocuous to fabricate such a tale to shield the youth from the reality of a concentration camp, it would be shortsighted to ignore the aftermath that will follow Giosue around for the rest of his life.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the movie and would watch it again. The plot was a bit simplistic and the comedy only lightly entertaining, so I wouldn't expect much value from seeing it again.