The Glass is 1/2 Full

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2007)

In Life is Beautiful celebrated Italian film director, actor, and writer Roberto Benigni puts his comedic skills to the ultimate test. Through this he creates a perfect example of the tragicomedy. Benigni participates in the film several ways : he plays the films main role, directs, and co-writes. Benigni is of course no stranger to wit, and he definitely displays this on and off of the screen. It's certain that wit was something that Benigni was glad to have when making Life is Beautiful. I say this because not many film-makers could successfully set a comedy in a concentration camp.
Life is Beautiful is fixed into two parts, one more lighthearted then the other but still containing the same overall theme. The first portion of the film is a slapstick romantic-comedy which can seem a bit "been there done that". It is highly reminiscent to the 1950's melodrama, with the lush coloring and over the top acting. Guido(Benigni) is a Jewish-Italian waiter living in Fascist Italy during the 1930's attempting to set up a bookstore. Guido is overwhelmingly optimistic, fast-talking, and has a heart of gold. He falls in love with a local school teacher, Dora (Nicolleta Braschi, Benigni's actual wife), at first sight when she falls into his arms from the top of a barn-house as he arrives into town. The only issue that Guido faces is Dora's Fascist fiancé, who is cruel and overbearing.
Guido's scheme to win Dora's heart consists of various premeditated run-ins around town. Guido at one point appears at Dora's school and disguises himself as the school inspector. He humors Dora by mocking Italian Fascist ideals and shows the school children the A1 structure of his Italian ears and bellybutton. At an opera Guido spots his "princess" on a balcony above him and attempts to lure her into noticing him by using Shopenhauer's theory of willpower, one of Guido's great attributes, that he learned from his friend Ferrucio. He repeatedly calls her name softly and she finally notices him. Later that evening they get stuck in the rain, with only a makeshift umbrella made of a steering wheel and pillow to protect them. With Dora's dress revealing her behind, a clear homage to the classic Bringing Up Baby, Guido walks her home and calls it a night.
About half way into the film the pacing is shifted instantaneously. At first we are welcomed by Guido's new family. The couple now has a son, Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini), who is about 6 years old. There are only subtle reminders during the first half of the film to the Nazi dominated state of Europe. Now Joshua reads a sign on the window of a bakery that reads "No Jews or dogs Allowed", and the enclosure of Guido's bookstore has "JEWISH STORE" painted on it. One day Dora returns home and finds her home wrecked, and empty. She realizes that her husband and son have been sent to a death camp. Dora, who is not Jewish, is exempted from being taken to a concentration camp, demands that she get on the train with her family.
On the way to the death camp Guido contrives a plan to set his sons mind at peace. He tells his son that he has been planing a special trip for his birthday, which has fallen on that day. When they arrive at the camp Guido improvises the rules of a game where the winners get a real tank. In order to win you must obtain 1,000 points-by not crying, not asking for your mother, not being hungry, and by hiding from the "the mean guys who yell". Through the assistance of Guido's improvisation and humor he keeps him and son alive.
Life is Beautiful deserves to be put on the pedestal that so many undeserving contemporary comedies are put on. Some might think finding humor in such a delicate setting like the Holocaust might seem offensive, but Benigni is in no way abusing the seriousness of the Holocaust. One would hope that no one would need to be constantly reminded of the horrors of the Holocaust to understand the seriousness of the event. After all we are seeing the Holocaust through the eyes of a child who thinks of it as a competition or game that his father invented to keep him and his son alive. The point of Life is Beautiful is not the Holocaust. The fact that a portion of the film is set in a concentration camp only helps us understand that we can not let our spirit and hope for a better tomorrow be crushed even through the harshest, and most excruciating times.