Schmaltzy, treacly, saccharine — call it what you like, if you’re not blubbing by the end, check your pulse.

| Sep 20, 2022

Wrenching Holocaust fable with bittersweet humor.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Dec 25, 2010

| Original Score: A | Oct 29, 2008

How appealing you find it will probably depend on your response to Benigni's screen-hogging routines -- the line between endearing and irksome is a fine one.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 10, 2002

Yes, there are heaps of charm and poignancy in this trifle, but it's a trifle nonetheless -- light-and-bright, for sure, but also slight-and-trite.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 12, 2002

If this is a fantasy, it is probably a compensation we need when facing the reality of history.

| Mar 5, 2002

Its sentiment is inescapable, but genuine poignancy and pathos are also present, and an overarching sincerity is visible too.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Feb 14, 2001

Roberto Benigni's comic fable about one family's struggle to survive in a Nazi concentration camp is in offensively poor taste.

| Jan 1, 2000

The lesson that Benigni ultimately imparts is that it's easy to convince a child horror doesn't exist as long as it stays out of the way while the two of you are goofing off.

| Jan 1, 2000

The movie manages to incorporate all these things into a moving yet unsentimental story about the beauty of maintaining one's wits while stumbling blindly in the insane no man's land that lies beyond wit's end.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

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.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

You'll laugh! You'll cry! You'll smile through the evils of genocide!

| Original Score: B- | Jan 1, 2000

The picture doesn't work, at least not to the extent it was intended to.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

It's a high-wire act without a net, and Benigni pulls it off with astounding grace and sensitivity.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

he film's absurdist account of fascism gives the first half rich comic flavors that grow darker as the story progresses.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Benigni's movie made me want to throw up.

Full Review | Jan 1, 2000

This is an excellent movie for families to watch together, to discuss not just the historical framework but challenges that parents face when they see their children learn about tragedy and unfairness.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Sentimentality is a kind of fascism too, robbing us of judgment and moral acuity, and it needs to be resisted. Life Is Beautiful is a good place to start.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Art-house sentimentalists will likely go for Beautiful in a big way, but even those who aggressively resist manipulation can find a lot to admire.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jan 1, 2000

dares to laugh in the face of the unthinkable. And because Benigni can be heart-rending without a trace of the maudlin, it works.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000