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01/25/08
The Italian (2007)
91 %
Reviews Counted: 92 Fresh: 84 Rotten:8 Average Rating: 7.2/10
Consensus:
Poignant and unforgettable, The Italian stands out from other European melodramas. Like its extraordinary child lead, this Russian drama about an orphan's search for his birth mother is small in size and monumental in pathos.
Rated: 12A [See Full Rating]
Runtime: 1 hr 39 mins
Theatrical Release: 25-01-2008
Synopsis: Despite the title, THE ITALIAN is actually a Russian film set at a bleak orphanage in rural Russia. The story opens when six-year-old Vanya Solntsev (Kolya Spiridonov) is introduced to an Italian couple who are hoping to adopt a child. Vanya is a handsome, bright-eyed little boy, and the... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Denis Moiseenko, Kolya Spiridonov, Sasha Sirotkin, Andrei Yelizarov, Vladimir Shipov
Reviews
Vividly characterised and convincingly acted (not least by Spiridonov), it makes for a fascinating portrait of a post-Communist society beset by crime and despair.
01/24/08
Top Critic
Vividly characterised and convincingly acted (not least by Spiridonov), it makes for a fascinating portrait of a post-Communist society beset by crime and despair.
01/24/08
Top Critic
A stunningly powerful indictment of the weakest in thrall to a corrupt system.
01/24/08
An unsentimental and vividly characterized film which successfully combines melodrama and social analysis and features an impressive central performance from Spiridonov.
01/24/08
Top Critic Top Critic
Andrei Kravchuk’s film is sensitive to the hilt and pleasingly attuned to the guileless outlook of its hero.
01/24/08
Top Critic
Despite channeling Dickensian melodrama, first-time director Andrei Kravchuk skilfully avoids wallowing in sentimentality.
01/24/08
Top Critic
With a tensed brow, Kolya Spiridonov plays a boy perpetually hovering between anxiety and dogged determination, and the film walks the same line, unsure about where it's going but always moving forward regardless.
06/09/08
This 2005 story about a Russian boy whose mother has given him up may be derivative, but it's still engrossing, largely because of its appealing juvenile lead, Kolya Spiridonov.
12/04/07
It's a touching film about a little boy with the determination of a champ.
11/04/07
What really makes this potentially melodramatic story so powerful is the incredibly intense and focused presence of little Kolya Spiridonov, who makes you believe Vanya's determination and grit every step of the way.
05/25/07
Like Vittorio De Sica, one of the great Italian neo-realists, Kravchuk populates his film with people, not paradigms; his characters are capable of good and evil, sometimes in equal measure.
05/19/07
It is about love, family, and the power of kindness to overcome the cruelty in the world.
05/14/07
There are shocking and heartbreaking moments scattered throughout The Italian, but [director] Kravchuk approaches them with a nonjudgmental, observational style that avoids most of the pitfalls of melodrama.
05/11/07
A throwback to neo-realist filmmaking . . . snowballs in emotion until later scenes are stomach-knotting in their tension. The film largely avoids sentiment with its muted score and shadowed close-ups.
05/09/07
This film is about many things, but the magic key that unlocks the treasure chest is literacy.
04/30/07
At times, the difficulties that Vanya encounters strain credulity. The Italian doesn't bother to infuse its characters with complex motivations. They're either Bad or Good.
04/27/07
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04/27/07
An odd, beguiling little movie -- about two parts Dickens (with some Dickensian Chaplin thrown in) to one part Italian neorealist cinema.
04/25/07
Related Forums
(2007 USA release)-THE ITALIAN is a Russian film that is currently playing stateside?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
(2007 USA release)-THE ITALIAN is a Russian film that is currently playing stateside?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
(2007 USA release)-THE ITALIAN is a Russian film that is currently playing stateside?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
(2007 USA release)-THE ITALIAN is a Russian film that is currently playing stateside?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
by: REEL_REVIEWER 5/22/07
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