Life is Beautiful Review
by Michael Dequina (michael_jordan AT geocities DOT com)October 19th, 1998
_Life_Is_Beautiful_(La_Vita_E_Bella)_ (PG-13) **** (out of ****)
It would seem impossible to make a "Holocaust comedy," but Roberto Benigni has not only made one, he has made a terrific one. A national treasure in his native Italy, Benigni co-wrote (with Vincenzo Cerami), directed, and stars in the funny, poignant tale of Guido (Benigni), a Jewish bookstore owner in fascist WWII Italy whose "beautiful" existence with wife Dora (Nicoletta Braschi) and son Joshua (Giorgio Cantarini) is disrupted when the entire family is sent to a concentration camp. Although he is equally terrified by harsh camp life tas anyone else, Guido is nonetheless determined to shield his son from the truth of their horrific reality, coming up with an elaborate, if desperate, cover story to convince Joshua that everything is fine.
And that's how Benigni is able to maintain what would seem an improbable balance: the film wins hearty, heartfelt laughs through Guido's creative lies while never once downplaying the inhumane horror of the concentration camp situation. While one may often laugh at Guido's ruse, each laugh comes with the lingering threat of death, which Benigni vividly yet fairly subtly depicts (people being called for "showers," a brief glimpse of charred bodies). _La_Vita_E_Bella_'s lasting impression is not made by its laughs or sense of reality, but its huge heart. Strip away the harrowing Holocaust setting, and Benigni's story is a simple, timeless, uplifting tale of the ways (in this case, through laughter) love can bring out the unlikely, but no less brave, hero in any man. (opens October 23)
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Michael Dequina
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