Comics do not have to be good-looking, but must they be as unappealing as the inverted-eggplant-headed, chinless wonder Benigni, with his passive-aggressive charmlessness and fish-eyed simpletonism? And then there is the angular ploddingness of his real-life spouse Nicoletta Braschi, and her by-the-numbers expressions. The little boy, appropriately not cherubically adorable, is passable but nothing special. But the inane Life Is Beautiful thrives, while a fine Italian film such as Pupi Avati’s Best Man vanishes. NR
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER NOW IN PAPERBACK
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