RyothChatty ridiculous rating

Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Stephanie There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

manjits "The Italian", a debut film by Andrei Kravchuk, is an outstanding film by any standard; and yet the film failed to win any major awards – not even the consolation of a Best Foreign Film Oscar. It won the minor category of Children's film award created for the purpose at Venice, but nowhere else, as if a film about children automatically becomes a children's film.Three reasons spring to mind; it was a commercial dud possibly due to lack of commercial skills of the makers; contrary to public perception, shock value and financial success rules the fate of a movie even at the top festivals where the judges are mostly the mega-stars from Hollywood and around the world; and the debut production of a young person from a poor country still on the other side of the divide stood as little chance of an award as of Castro winning a Nobel Peace Prize.So what did I find exceptional in the movie? To start with the least important, the cinematography was par excellence. The depiction of desolate, gloomy environment of Russian winter, with telephoto shots of barbed wires quivering as if in the cold air; the claustrophobic shots of vast landscape (even if done through back projection) from the inside of cars and train were awesome.The second most outstanding quality of the film was the acting, particularly by all the child actors. It wasn't just great; it was breathtaking in its realism, as if the kids were chosen from an actual asylum which they weren't. The adults had no chance to compete against such talent, but managed to perform professionally.The most outstanding characteristic of the film got to be the director, whose command in every field – music; editing; locations; camera angles; choice of lenses and suppression of any tinge of sentimentality – was evident.I don't accept it's a rehash of Dickens's Oliver Twist suggested by some commentators. The harsh brutality of criminal gangs of 18th century Britain in Oliver Twist has nothing in common with the sad declension of Russian society and morale since the glasnost. If anything, the story has more in common with the magical realism of Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.That's why the unsentimental ending gels with the mood of the movie.

Local Hero _The Italian_ is a touching film about the precious humanity of one orphaned, six-year-old Russian boy. The film has many strong points, and it is hard not to be moved by the child's desperate, purblind plight.However, the unfortunate political subtext of this film seems utterly lost on all of the other reviewers here thus far. In short, our natural compassion for abandoned children's welfare is manipulated by this movie, and the resulting impact of this film in Russia has been and will be precisely the abandonment of thousands of precious children who would otherwise have stable, loving homes. This film lies squarely in the detestable Russian tradition of using the plight of the multitudes of Russian orphans to score nationalistic political points. Note how this film would affect someone who knows nothing about the true situation of orphans in the Russian Federation. The viewer would come away feeling that orphanages are filled with greedy administrators eager to "sell children" to "foreigners"-- children who really belong in their "homeland," because, after all, the film subtly implies, the "loss" of these children to foreigners is somehow connected to the loss of national prestige in Russia. Many a nationalistic politician in Russia has made precisely this political pose, and the direct result of this has been the unnecessary, continued suffering and abandonment of untold thousands of Russian orphans. This film masquerades as a plea for children's welfare, but it has only hurt the very children it pretends to defend.I have worked in Russian orphanages. The reality this craven and ignorant film denies? The staff of orphanages are, by and large, without doubt the great, unsung heroes of Russia, and there are thousands upon thousands of desperate children whose placement in stable and loving homes has been HALTED because of politicians who push the imbecilic and inhuman chauvinistic ideology seen in this film.

EXodus25X The Italian is a wonderful and heart warming film, a great performance by it's staring young lead actor, Koyla Spiridonov. I was reminded of a similar film I had just watched, Under the Same Moon, which also was carried by an equally strong performance by it's young actor. Movies like these have a real chance to include a huge supporting cast which can sometimes be great for the film, but other times overshadows the main character and their story. The Italian's side characters are under developed but in this case that is for the best, the young boy is such a strong character that he is all that is needed. In Under the Same Moon the opposite of that works better, where the supporting characters help the audience connect to the main characters. The ending I felt was very beautiful, went away from a typical ending, maybe a bit cheesy, but if you really get into this story then why would you want anything else for this young man.

Roland E. Zwick "The Italian" is a touching tale of a six-year-old Russian orphan who goes in search of the mother who gave him to a foundling home when he was just an infant.Vanya has spent virtually his entire life growing up in a substandard orphanage run by an alcoholic director and a cold-hearted administrator. The children there live in virtual squalor with no effort on the part of the leaders to properly instruct or educate them. The future for most of these youngsters is a bleak one indeed, with a life of petty thievery and/or prostitution the most likely outcome for any of them not fortunate enough to catch the eye of some prospective, loving parent. Yet, as the movie begins, young Vanya's personal nightmare seems to be coming to an end as a kind Italian couple has come to Russia with the intention of adopting Vanya and taking him back to Italy with them. However, before the proper papers can be signed, the boy, sensing he must act quickly before it is too late, sets off on a long, arduous journey to see if he can find the mother who abandoned him as a baby."The Italian" is a compelling slice-of-life drama that has a great deal to say not only about the appalling conditions faced by orphans in Russia today, but about the determination of the human spirit and the need for love that exists at the center of every human heart. Director Andrei Kravchuk brings a near-documentary quality to the film, as he focuses his camera on the details of everyday life in the orphanage and the countryside through which Vanya travels. This air of naturalism extends to the actors as well, particularly young Kolya Spiridonov, who, as Vanya, gives a performance that can only be termed extraordinary and heartbreaking. After this film and the brilliant "The Return," I'm convinced that Russia has some of the finest child actors in the business. Indeed, there is nothing less than a superb performance in the entire film."The Italian" is a film tuned to the realities of life in a harsh environment, where cruel and violent deeds often share the stage with acts of random kindness. Vanya's epic adventure provides more than ample opportunity for him to experience both, but it is the magnanimity he encounters at the hands of strangers that lingers longest in memory.