Miramax's best bet for Oscar nominations this year is Roberto Benigni's "Life is Beautiful". Much lauded at film festivals worldwide, the movie's most impressive cache of awards, however, is its haul of no less than five audience awards.

Any film about the Holocaust that is not a straight-forward depiction of the horrors and brutalities of the experience is often difficult to sell and to sit through. Witness the so-far middling performance of Bryan Singer's "Apt Pupil", a film which takes its subject matter seriously, intelligently and so effectively that many find it more unsettling than Steven Spielberg's magnum opus, "Schindler's List". While Benigni's film is often termed the "Holocaust comedy", it is far from a disrespectful nor frivolous massacre of one of mankind's most painful and disturbing historical events.

The film starts on an upbeat tone as a wanderer, Guido Orefice (Roberto Benigni), chances upon and woos the rich Dora away from her upstart fiance. Sharp, inventive and full of humor and zest for life, Guido's innate sweetness and intense devotion eventually win Dora's heart and they marry. Five years later, with a son in tow and the Germans running across Italy, Guido and Dora are separated as he and his son - both Jewish - are taken to a concentration camp. Unwilling to leave behind her love, Dora voluntarily has herself interned as well. To protect his son's innocence and to save the child's life, Guido invents a fanciful and elaborate hoax that the entire war and concentration camp experience are nothing but a game whose rules include always keeping quiet and never bathing. Ultimately, as the war comes to an end, the fate of Guido and his family hangs in the balance as he slowly comes apart, trying to keep his senses and his family together as ever desperate situations drive them apart.

Although there are numerous scenes in the film which are written as comedic and play broadly for laughs, the underlying message of Benigni's movie is serious and challenging - to find the courage and the strength to face up to one of the most horrific events in human history and to try to find hope, humor and meaning in it is not a short order. Magnificently, Benigni successfully pulls it off. "Life is Beautiful" never panders to its audience, neither is it shamelessly manipulative nor cloying. Instead, Benigni finely balances whimsy and wisdom and has fashioned a film that is entertaining, moving and life-affirming without dripping of saccharine nor heavy-handedly educating its audience.

As the film's star, Benigni is a gem - Italy's treasure is probably the only actor who can play this role so effectively and juggle the many subtle mood changes and the constantly shifting demands of the character so well. His wife, Nicoletta Brasci, shines brightly onscreen with him in her scenes as well. Instead of coming off as window dressing, her portrayal of Dora makes Guido's insistent determination to live and to love palpably heartrending.

Sublime and inspiring, "Life is Beautiful" is a pleasant and serious-minded dramedy that is rarely seen these days. It may not be obviously powerful, and its images may not be haunting, but the memory of the film will linger much longer than the average "important film".

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