Danish
Drama
Feature Film
2000

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Italian for Beginners comes out of Denmark, filmed from the Dogme philosophy of filmmaking. (To see more, go to the Dogme web site, select "manifesto" and "Vow of Chastity".) It distills filmmaking to basic essence (or deliberately eschews Hollywood-style filmmaking).

This raw feeling is evident in the story, and it's a bit distracting -- most likely because it's different than the polished look I'm accustomed to seeing from foreign films. It must rely on the actors and the story to hold my interest.

Italian for Beginners does succeed in that, although just a shade above barely. I like watching actors that aren't Hollywood pretty, and each of the characters in the movie had delightful quirks and foibles. They are ordinary people muddling through their lives, and not necessarily making the right choices the first time around. But they are earnest in their efforts and eventually succeed.

I think that Italian for Beginners focuses less on the Italian class than on the idea of being handed a second chance and then deciding what to do with that opportunity. It's sweet, and tantalizing enough that I wanted to know what happened to everyone in the end.