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Life Is Beautiful

La vita è bella

1997

Roberto Benigni

Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Giorgio Cantarini, Marisa Paredes ...

8.5

192,300

Comedy. Drama Guido - a charming but bumbling waiter who's gifted with a colourful imagination and an irresistible sense of humour - has won the heart of the woman he loves and has created a beautiful life for his young family. But then, that life is threatened by World War II and Guido must rely on those very same strengths to save his beloved wife and son from an unthinkable fate.

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"In the real death camps there would be no role for Guido. But Life Is Beautiful is not about Nazis and Fascists, but about the human spirit (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of four)"	POS
United States	Janet Maslin The New York Times	"[It] dares to laugh in the face of the unthinkable (...) an unpretentious, enormously likable film that plays with history both seriously and mischievously"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly	"The first feel-good Holocaust weepie"	POS
United Kingdom	BBC	"[It] remains a deeply problematic contribution to the growing body of films about the Holocaust (...) the line between endearing and irksome is a fine one (…) Rating: ★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	CNN	"There's a patent phoniness to the proceedings that subverts the entire point of the movie."	NEG
United Kingdom	Caroline Westbrook Empire	"[Benigni] creates the kind of tragi-comic hero you can't help but end up rooting for (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	David Rooney Variety	"Sluggish, uneven and lacking in rhythm, it nonetheless has enough pathos and winning humor"	NEU
United States	AV Club	"'Life Is Beautiful' brilliantly captures the inherent weirdness of sheer evil by making the viewer laugh in the midst of terror."	POS

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