In this task, you must classify if a given review is positive/negative, indicating your answer as P or N.
Example: plot : two teen couples go to a church party , drink and then drive .
they get into an accident .
one of the guys dies , but his girlfriend continues to see him in her life , and has nightmares .
what 's the deal ?
watch the movie and " sorta " find out . . .
critique : a mind - fuck movie for the teen generation that touches on a very cool idea , but presents it in a very bad package .
which is what makes this review an even harder one to write , since i generally applaud films which attempt to break the mold , mess with your head and such ( lost highway & memento ) , but there are good and bad ways of making all types of films , and these folks just did n't snag this one correctly
.
they seem to have taken this pretty neat concept , but executed it terribly .
so what are the problems with the movie ?
well , its main problem is that it 's simply too jumbled
.
it starts off " normal " but then downshifts into this " fantasy " world in which you , as an audience member ,
have no idea what 's going on
.
there are dreams , there are characters coming back from the dead , there are others who look like the dead , there are strange apparitions , there are disappearances , there are a looooot of chase scenes , there are tons of weird things that happen , and most of it is simply not explained .
now i personally do n't mind trying to unravel a film every now and then , but when all it does is give me the same clue over and over again , i get kind of fed up after a while , which is this film 's biggest problem .
it 's obviously got this big secret to hide , but it seems to want to hide it completely until its final five minutes .
and do they make things entertaining , thrilling or even engaging , in the meantime ?
not really .
the sad part is that the arrow and i both dig on flicks like this , so we actually figured most of it out by the half - way point , so all of the strangeness after that did start to make a little bit of sense , but it still did n't the make the film all that more entertaining .
i guess the bottom line with movies like this is that you should always make sure that the audience is " into it " even before they are given the secret password to enter your world of understanding .
i mean , showing melissa sagemiller running away from visions for about 20 minutes throughout the movie is just plain lazy ! !
okay , we get it .
. .
there are people chasing her and we do n't know who they are .
do we really need to see it over and over again ?
how about giving us different scenes offering further insight into all of the strangeness going down in the movie ?
apparently , the studio took this film away from its director and chopped it up themselves , and it shows .
there might 've been a pretty decent teen mind - fuck movie in here somewhere , but i guess " the suits " decided that turning it into a music video with little edge , would make more sense .
the actors are pretty good for the most part , although wes bentley just seemed to be playing the exact same character that he did in american beauty , only in a new neighborhood .
but my biggest kudos go out to sagemiller , who holds her own throughout the entire film , and actually has you feeling her character 's unraveling .
overall , the film does n't stick
because it does n't entertain , it 's confusing , it rarely excites and
it feels pretty redundant for most of its runtime , despite a pretty cool ending and explanation to all of the craziness that came before it .
oh ,
and by the way , this is not a horror or teen slasher flick . . .
it 's just packaged to look that way because someone is apparently assuming that the genre is still hot with the kids .
it also wrapped production two years ago and has been sitting on the shelves ever since .
whatever . .
. skip it !
where 's joblo coming from ?
a nightmare of elm street 3 ( 7/10 ) - blair witch 2 ( 7/10 ) - the crow ( 9/10 ) - the crow : salvation ( 4/10 )
- lost highway ( 10/10 ) - memento ( 10/10 ) - the others ( 9/10 ) - stir of echoes ( 8/10 )
Example solution: N
Example explanation: The phrases used in the review convey a negative sentiment (e.g. "presents it in a very bad package").

Problem: what a great film .
what a stunning , touching , heart - wrenching , heart - warming , life - affirming , miraculous film .
> from its opening moments
, _ life is beautiful _ walks that fine line between serious tragedy and uplifting comedy .
a car with no brakes speeds through the town , and guido ( roberto benigni ) motions people to move out of the way .
they mistake him to be the fascist president , traveling to their town that day .
heil !
heil !
huh ?
shortly thereafter , the president drives through , and people stare , with blank faces .
this is standard , but somehow fresh and postmodern stuff : the clown who is also a jew , triumphs over the anti - semitic society in which he = lives .
granted , _ the great dictator _ comes to mind --
charlie chaplin+s almost masterpiece .
i think lib ( which benigni wrote and directed ) trumps gd in one essential point : chaplin+s jewish barber gives a great speech at the climax , but to do so , he had to break completely from character .
benigni is given a similar situation : he is mistaken as a fascist dignitary , and must explain to a classroom filled with schoolchildren = on how scientists have concluded that aryans are the superior race .
benigni+s guido stays in character , and delivers the speech , keeping = the subject matter intact while showing the absurdity of its concept .
it = is one of the great satirical scenes in modern cinema .
there are many other scenes , especially in the first half , which are bright and loopy and funny and silly
. slapstick reigns , and although the film is subtitled , there was no doubt that a universal language was being conveyed .
and although it+s focus is on the courtship of guido = to dora ( played by nicoletta braschi , benigni+s real life wife ) , a silent undercurrent creeps in .
this is clearly a racist society , evidenced by the aforementioned scene and others , and it will soon affect him and = his family .
the second half of the film takes place five years later , in an unnamed concentration camp , where guido , dora ( by her insistence ) , and their five - year old son , giosu = e9 ( giorgio cantarini ) , are deported .
guido , seeing the horrors , is desperate to protect his wife and child .
for = his wife , who is separated from him , he must find ways to communicate to = her that he is all right .
for his son , ( and this is the most controversial part of the film )
he convinces the youngster that this is all one big elaborate game : it+s rules include hiding , being very quiet , and learning to not ask for seconds . which raises the big questions : how do we deal with pain ? with persecution ?
with injustice on the worst level ?
it+s said that tragedies bring out the best in people , finding strengths they did not realize they had .
other times they deteriorate , become overwhelmed = with little strength or incentive to swim .
sometimes even , people giggle in these moments , as if there were a vacant emotion behind them , yearning for some brightness to soothe their wounds .
benigni+s guido realizes this .
he is the clown , but he is not a fool .
he sees the slurs and the vandalism , and while feeling the weight of = the verbal attacks , he still has the audacity to see if everyone around = him , perhaps even the antagonists , laugh .
his liberty is stripped , but not his dignity , and certainly not the dignities of those around him .
it+s obvious from the onset that here is someone who is very much against fascism and the preposterousness of an aryan nation , but does so with a grinning , joyful demeanor .
perhaps that is a form of denial .
perhaps his alternate reality is all that he could muster ( not unlike the very different _ brazil _ ) .
or . . . perhaps this is an example of great fortitude , with no weapons
but = wit .
whatever his purposes is subject to debate , but also a sure sign that this is one of the great three - dimensional characters , stranded amidst = a terrifyingly risky concept .
surprisingly , it works .
it is an important footnote that this film was not intended to be an accurate reflection of the holocaust .
it+s not that the atrocities are trivialized , far from it .
they don+t have to be broadcast and explicitly shown to muster the same horror -- less is more .
i believe = that benigni was cautious to preserve the tone , and i like the theory that = it is guido+s alternate reality that we+re seeing .
however , any criticism that this is rewriting history , that the holocaust wasn+t as bad as it seems , is simply off - target .
benigni+s film has won audience awards at cannes , at toronto , and is a definite shoo - in for best foreign language film
( hopefully for best picture as well ) .
he has been made an honorary jew by a jerusalem film society .
it swept the italian academy awards .
controversy notwithstanding
, it is one of the great films this year , and as of this writing , the one to beat for best film . masterful . miraculous . a must - see .
Solution: P