Life is Beautiful (Vita e Bella, La)

I have mixed reactions after watching the movie. First half of movie is dedicated to humor and second half is dedicated to sentiments. It’s one of that feel good type of movies which at the end of it somehow leaves viewers satisfied. The film handles a profoundly serious subject with a light touch. In the battle against barbarism, Director is saying, there are also the weapons of joy and imagination.

Most of the holocaust scenes shown in the picture somehow make me feel that I have seen similar sequences in ‘Schindler’s List’ also. I am not trying to say that movie has copied those sequences from ‘Schindler’s List’ but may be , as they say truth has only one representation , both films were depicting Nazi era and that’s why this similarity. With all the violence in the air, this movie has still avoided showing explicit brutalities like that in 'Schindler’s List' but it definitely evokes and then allows people to use their imaginations.

The comic part of the movie doesn’t impress much and all pranks of Benigni seem stale. The movie in Italian with English subtitles starts with light romance that abruptly transforms into a deeply moving tale of survival. Despite the film's radical shift in tone, Benigni's message never wavers: life is beautiful if you make it so. It's just a matter of willpower. At the camp, Guido concocts a story to shield his son from the horrific reality around them and doesn’t ever let him know that they are surrounded by all the worst troubles of their life and tries everything to make his son believe that they are in fact playing a game. In my opinion the other point which Benigni tried to make with sensitivity, is that a child's innocence is worth protecting.

The movie doesn’t carry that extreme touching sentiment power unlike ‘I am Sam’ or ‘The Color Purple’, still it can make your eyes wet at one or two places. The kid has performed his role brilliantly in the movie and so did the Doctor. The pace of the movie is not always fast. The movie tries to do too much at one time and hence miss on some points. Overall a nice movie worth a watch but something is missing from the movie which could have turned it from good to great.

My Rating: 6.75/10
Entertainment Value: 70%