Creepy

Rating: Null/10 (27 October 2000)

To make a such a movie about the Holocaust would require an extraordinary actor, who could convey the contradictory desire to spare his son and simultaneously feel the horror of being shipped to a camp. Instead, all I saw was him literally trying to make a big joke out the experience, because Benigni isn't capable of portraying fear while playing a clown. The scene where he does the "funny interpreter" shtick for the Nazis is especially awful--he was risking the lives of all the inmates with his game. I was shocked that he won Best Actor, though of course that is consistent with the travesty of the Oscars. It wasn't a true story, but at the end the boy claims "This is the story of my life" as if this were a true life story. It was a cheap trick. Very dishonest.