Review of Life Is Beautiful (1997) by Jonathan P — 02 Feb 2011

When I put in Life is Beautiful I was expecting a heart-wrenching movie about a fathers love and sacrifice. I got that but not to the extent that I was expecting. Upon reading reviews I was waiting for an epic tear-jerker instead I got a comedy that almost became to comedic to deal with the subject at hand.

Benigni is fantastic if we take Life is Beautiful as just a comedy but during the holocaust scenes I kept waiting for him to break his wacky character and show some emotion (hugging his son and crying or something to show that he wasn't just insane).

The fact that Benigni never once showed human emotion (other than comedy) weighed a bit on the movie and took away much of the emotion that should have accompanied the horrific realities that surrounded father and son.

Life is Beautiful is a great movie if you don't have any preconceived notions about it being one of the saddest and heartwarming movies ever made, as many critics and reviewers would have you believe.