Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Mellow-Fellow I was very pleasantly surprised with this movie. It is filmed in such a unique way that it feels almost as if you are a part of the show, a spectator following a group of fatefully connected individuals on a small but very important part of their lives.The movie explores each unique character and relationship independently and offers us a good perspective on the relevant situations they find themselves in. A little more character development for the smaller roles, back story and information about how things came to be, and what will be in the end would have been nice for me, and could have been added while subtracting from some of the less meaningful scenes. This is the Dogme 95 style of film, and is my first introduction to the type. It makes for a more personal realistic style of film making but it seems clear why the style has been formally abandoned.This was an excellent film. It is entirely dialogue driven, so know what you are getting into and you are sure to enjoy this film. I think all of us can relate in some way or another to one of the main characters in this movie.

random_avenger In a small Danish town six lonely people are brought together by a beginners' course of Italian language: Andreas (Anders W. Berthelsen) is a recently graduated minister who moves in the town to temporarily replace the erratically behaving previous minister; Finn (Lars Kaalund) works in a restaurant with an Italian woman named Giulia (Sara Indrio Jensen); Jørgen Mortensen (Peter Gantzler) is a quiet hotel clerk and Karen and Olympia (Ann Eleonora Jørgensen and Anette Støvelbæk) work as a barber-hairdresser and a bakery worker respectively. Despite initial setbacks on the course, the group eventually learns to approach each other, and relationships of different kinds are formed.The Dogme influence is most notably evident in the use of hand-held cameras and natural lighting, but over all Italian for Beginners is much softer and accessible in tone than the other films of the Dogme school that I've seen. A major theme is overcoming feelings of insecurity, as all of the characters have their own reasons to keep other people at arm's length at first. In the case of Karen and Olympia it is a difficult relationship to a parent, but for example Finn tends to hide his real feelings under tough and rash behaviour. All of the main characters feel rather polished and even exaggerated at first, but as the movie's empathic style becomes more obvious, the way of presenting their personalities becomes more understandable and very sympathetic.At the end of the day, Italian for Beginners belongs among the better romantic dramas I've seen. The actors fit in their roles well, especially Lars Kaalund as the aggressive Finn and Peter Gantzler as the humble and mild-mannered Jørgen. The quiet, oppressed women Karen and Olympia are also excellently portrayed by Jørgensen and Støvelbæk. Even though the sparse Dogme stylization initially creates a bleak and discomforting atmosphere, the dark aura soon makes way for a down-to-earth feel-good movie that concerns itself with realism on technical aspects only, not so much plotwise. As a result, I would recommend the film to any drama fan who likes a change from the bright world of many traditional screen romances.

Martin Bradley Watching this superlative film from Denmark I kept thinking just how awful the American remake would be, (unless, of course, it was directed by someone like Thomas McCarthy or Tamara Jenkins). It's about a handful of lonely people in what, presumably, is a small community and whose lives intersect on a daily basis but who come to know each other more much intimately through the Italian class they attend every week. They are also linked by love and death; the death of parents and loved ones and the love which they find with each other. It's very funny and it's genuinely charming. If a major Hollywood studio were to do this I doubt if it would be either. But it is also honest and fairly uncompromising and it treats all the characters on screen with affection and with respect, something Hollywood seldom does.It's also superbly acted. This is a brilliant ensemble and there isn't a dud performance in sight; impossible, then, to single out one performance but these people live on long after the movie ends. It is also so well directed by Lone Scherfig that you simply forget there's someone behind the camera telling the actors what to do. Perhaps that's the real achievement of Dogme 95; you forget you're watching a movie and feel instead like you're visiting old friends.

Gerald Dorman The first part of this film portrays very grim reality with a forthrightness not often experienced in a non-documentary film. It is a relentless cavalcade of death, either shown or described. Spoken, about wives who have died in terrible ways; shown, parents who die in miserable circumstances. And a teacher dying in front of his students. All in the first half-hour. And, to be sure, extremely powerfully and expertly filmed. And then a fairy god-mother shows up, a nurse who conspires and covers up the euthanasia killing of one of our main character's mother. And this leads to revelations and relationships that transform the stories of our characters to the never-land of movie happily-ever-after. It is all extremely well written and performed; contrary to other critiques, the so-called "low production values" work very well throughout. The euthansia-girl, Karen, is especially well acted and believable throughout. And attractive, in a very real sense, with a blemished face and all. The happy-ever-after fantasy of the last part of the film can be looked upon as a catharsis, or just candy for the masses, or the way lives can be pulled up from the depths. It all can work, if a viewer wishes. But it is the unrelenting and honest depiction of real-life misery in the first part of the film that gives the film its real quality and qualifies the film as an important achievement.