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I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

full of good intentions. too large, almost confuse, chaotic, stage for many characters and acts.seductive. for its nuances. interesting. for family links as bricks. power. for the image of present Italy. sad. for the steps of sense search. sweet. for the colors of love. strange. for the presence of past as seed of a kind of happiness. romantic. for the courage to discover feelings, errors, hopes of an ordinary character who may be each man. profound. for the science to travel in the womb of unspoken words. beautiful. for its honesty, for a lot of image, for fragile gestures, for the dust and beach and kids and a fight without recipes or winner. nice. for presence of Raoul Bova in strange role and for problem of Romanians in Italy as not minor detail. out of description. for science to tell a story as mirror of each existence.

First off the bat i really like this movie. I read in a review it was about human flexibility of coping with hardship and they were absolutely right. The movie gets to you the moment one starts watching it, the story is like a book that you want to finish in one swing. The movie La nostra Vita is a movie with a distinct theme: Survival and Hope. At first the movie may be a little hard to keep up with as one just gets thrown in between an Italian family and their famous rapid conversations. However, at the important key points in the story the appropriate time is taken and the results in many beautiful scenes. For this movie some experience with film theatre style movies is required as one has to stay focused and there are some scenes with small fragile play at times through which the real story is told. For those with the patience there are many rewards: There are raw emotions, deep scenes and especially haunting ones. It dawned upon me after leaving the theatre that there were a lot of ideas the director wants you to see. The main idea this movie made clear to me is the sense of awareness and feel of duty a single dad of 3 can have, despite his errors and flaw in character, in order to save his family. Small subthemes like corruption discrimination, raising of children and relations with family are present and make the movie a nice whole. For me as a non-Italian I really like the opportunity i got to peek into another culture and to hear and experience their language. On a small sidenote the movie suffers from not so great music and is at times a bit chaotic which unfortunately lowered my score to an 8.For anyone looking for a real movie experience this will be a nice recommendation!

I saw this movie in Vancouver, after having seen 15 movies selected from across the spectrum. I thoroughly enjoyed the script, the acting and the direction. I am very sensitive to generalizations of race or culture, and resent themes that play to a lowest common denominator and therefore I was constantly being relieved when an obvious theme of Italian culture - like loyalty among family was given a modern and genuine lift...at every stage I thought the script presented us with the obvious assumptions we have of Italians and then took us to a more subtle and thoughtfull response - never more so than when the character of Claudio confronts the young Romanian son of the immigrant worker and tries to tell him 'what's what' in the real world. The young man, more wise and thoughtful of the two forces Claudio to re-think his position. Personal growth, hope - what else can we want? My only complaint? The theme song played one too many times for me....

Elio Germano is a good actor. He shared the best actor prize at the Cannes film festival with Javier Bardem. Okay. But the film is absolutely irritating. Nothing makes sense, emotionally or psychologically. It is one of the flimsiest but pretensions scripts in recent history. I kept looking at the screen and asking myself, what?! Germano, a construction worker finds the remains of an illegal immigrant under the site and doesn't report it, fearing the construction may be stop and he'll be out of a job. His pregnant wife dies giving birth at their third child and Germano seems to forget about her within a very small amount of time and takes off with the widow of the dead illegal immigrant. The extraordinary thing is that we're suppose to sit through it without passing judgment. Oh, please! Charming Elio Germano, accepting his award, dedicated the triumph to the Italian people "doing their best in-spite of their government. Okay, I agree but then, Elio, what the hell are you doing in this thoughtless film?