Roberto Benigni has been blessed with a joyous expression that is reminiscent of Harpo Marx. Whether you consider this a blessing or not, it is what makes Mr. Benigni such an eminently watchable actor regardless of what language he is speaking. The utter delight he exudes every moment he spends on screen makes it easy to believe that his bookstore owner, Guido Orefice, really thinks that life is a beautiful thing. Only a character this strong could possibly smile during the situations he endures in this film.
Mr. Benigni has really created two films here: one is the very funny story of how Guido courts and eventually marries the beautiful Dora (Mr. Benigni's real-life wife, Nicoletta Braschi) in 1930's Italy. The film then takes a drastic turn that sends Mr. Benigni's family, including their young son, to a concentration camp. Mr. Benigni's screenplay manages to sustain the comedy of the film with a brilliant premise: to protect his child from the atrocities all around them, he must convince his son that it is all an elaborate game contrived for his birthday.
The tone of the comedy in the second half of the film is noticeably different. Instead of the fast-paced, almost slapstick, interaction between Guido and his friends in their small Italian village, the film becomes much more dark and thoughtful. We now have a father who must endure the trials of a concentration camp while still trying to keep laughing for his son's sake.
If Mr. Benigni's incredibly crafted and unique film falters at all, it is only because it is very hard to believe that any man could be this strong during the Holocaust. Suspension of disbelief, however, is given a little help by the almost surreal quality with which Mr. Benigni (who also directed) films the scenes in the camp. When Guido and his son get lost and stumble upon a pile of corpses in a remote part of the camp, the scene is clouded in a strange mist which makes the pile seem at once horrifying and hypnotic.
"Life is Beatiful" bears comparison to another love-story-during-a-catastrophe movie: "Titanic". I am pleased to have some ammunition with which I can point out how shallow the latter film really was. The romance between Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio pales in comparison to that of Mr. Benigni and Ms. Braschi. In "Life is Beautiful" it is easy to see why she falls out of the arms of her fiance and into Guido's. Instead of the vapid, rehashed stolen jewel plotline, we have the love between a father and his son. And while it was difficult to care for any of the one-dimensional characters that went down with the ship in "Titanic", Mr. Benigni gives us a camp full of real people to follow and care about. And all in under three and a half hours - now that's beautiful.
