As some of you may know, I have sort of bashed this movie in the past. It was a case of displaced rage that came from Jim Carrey's Oscar snub which resulted in my calling "LIB"'s lead actor, Roberto Begnini a "spazz" and "crackhead," opinions which were based on my lack of exposure to his talent. Well, my good friend Johnson slapped me in the proverbial face and woke me up from my little, bitter, Jim Carrey Rage World. I saw "Life is Beautiful" the day after getting his message and now here is my review. (And a picture from the film.)
Before my personal review, I'll give a brief synopsis. "LIB" is the story of a Jewish-Italian guy named Guido who meets a beautiful woman named Dora, who is, unfortunately, in a different class than he is. She has already been promised to another man. At her engagement dinner, Guido is a waiter and is dismayed to see her with another man. Dora sees him, he drops a tray under the table, she slips under to meet him, and she says to him, "Take me away." And they kiss, and I sit there going "Awwwww!" And Guido gets out from underneath the table. But then, he recieves a message from (I think?) his brother about his uncle. His uncle's horse, Robin Hood, has been painted bright green and vandalized with anti-Semetic slurs. (Foreshadowing! Foreshadowing!) Guido brushes it off and uses the bright green horse so sweep Dora off her feet and ride away into the proverbial sunset.
Five years later, Guido and Dora are married with a little boy, Giosue (Joshua in Italian). Let me tell you how cute this little kid is. So cute. Sooooooo cute. And talented. Five years later is also the year 1944. This was the year that Guido started noticing more and more signs that things weren't going to be the same. There was more anti-Semetic graffiti, signs on stores that wouldn't allow Jews, and soldiers in the streets. When Giosue asks him why a certain store doesn't allow dogs or Jews, Guido explains that he'll hang a similar sign that doesn't allow Visigoths and another kind of animal, which I can't think of right now. If anyone can think of what it was, please tell me.
Unfortunately, while the beautiful romance story ends happily with a lovestruck couple and their little son, a new tragedy begins when Guido and Giosue are taken away on a Nazi train, leaving their beautiful home and life behind them. Dora gets separated from her family and takes a separate train to a concentration camp. While there, Giosue asks Guido what's happening to them and Guido explains that the grave situation they are forced into is actually a game. In this game, points are lost if you talk, ask for food, are found by the "mean guys who yell" (I think that's what he called them), or ask to go home. The first one to win a thousand points wins.
That's the basic structure of the movie. Now comes all the fun stuff in between that makes the movie great. Roberto Begnini is known in Italy as a major comic performer and has been compared to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin. I even saw one critic call him the Italian Little Tramp (a Chaplin character, for the uninformed). It's true; Begnini's mannerisms and sometimes slapstick actions are so much fun to watch in the midst of serious situations. The best part for me was a scene in which a Nazi officer comes into Guido and Giosue's cabin to give instructions to the prisoners. (Okay, it sounds like it shouldn't be funny, but anyway...) The officer asks if anyone in the cabin speaks German. Guido raises his hand. Another prisoner asks if he really knows German and Guido nervously shakes his head "No." He goes up to the front of the cabin and makes up imaginary rules that not only reassure his son, but make me bust a gut.
It's such a good movie in so many ways. Again, it's one of those movies that would make you cry, but as we all know, I don't cry in movies. Here are a few more pictures, taken from an excellent "LIB" site, Believe Me - Life is Beautiful.
