Benigni attempts to pull the wool over our eyes. This is a dishonest, despicable film.

Rating: 3/10 (5 August 1999)

Widely hailed by the media and culture vultures alike, Life is Beautiful fluffs out its feathers as 'the first ever Holocaust comedy'. "A Holocaust comedy?", squawked the masses, "We'd better see that!". What's more, it's 'foreign', as in non-American, very much de rigueur in Hollywood circles. But the fact that a film detailing, humorously, with the 20th Century's greatest tragedy won the Oscar accolades it did is enough evidence of its true worth.
It starts simply enough, with Benigni as the humble paesan who marries, has a kid, enjoys the good life in pre-war Italy. Soon, the evil Nazis have moved in, and his family is whisked off to a concentration camp where prisoners run around freely and no-one loses weight. Our hero attempts to protect his little boys from the horrors by creating an elaborate trick: telling the little tyke that it is all part of a highly imaginative birthday present. Soon, the film falls into a series of wholly implausible events, and we, as an audience, realise the real trick has been played on us. Benigni, too, seems to think the Holocaust was a trick, reflecting Allied guilt and denial after the Liberation. The fact that the movie was so loved suggests a sinister appraisal of its values: a collective sigh of WASP relief that it actually wasn't as bad as they'd been led to believe.
The Guardian newspaper from Manchester & London called it 'fundamentally mendacious' and as such was the only newspaper not fooled by Benigni's three card trick. The writer/star/director of Johnny Stecchino would do best by sticking to what he does best: making humane, funny, light-hearted films. Life is Beautiful is none of these.
The Hebrew word for the Holocaust is "Shoah". Benigni proves, without shame or responsibility that 'there's no business like Shoah business.'
A despicable, reprehensible motion picture.