Artivels Undescribable Perfection

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

lasttimeisaw After the crying fiasco of PINOCCHIO (2002), it is conceivable that Roberto Benigni's next film, THE TIGER AND THE SNOW gingerly recollects a familiar thematic tack from LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL (1997), melding an amplified ode to love against a war-inflicted backdrop, and garnishing it with a plethora of poetry in the recipe. Opening with a celestial wedding ceremony between Attilio de Giovanni (Benigni) and Vittoria (Braschi), with a humble Tom Waits humming the infectious YOU CAN NEVER HOLD BACK SPRING, this surreal dream sequence will recur many times with slight variations to indicate Attilio's undying affection for her, also with a sly cue to the film's well-kept secret. In reality, Attilio is a literature professor, a divorcé with two adolescent daughters, hounding Vittoria with amour fou, after a botched date, next thing we know, Vittoria is wounded in Baghdad during the ongoing Iraq War, and the narrative concisely spirits Attilio away to the war zone where he touches base with his old friend Fuad (Reno), a poet who returns to his fatherland after years living abroad, and is experiencing his own identity crisis in the face of deep disillusion and lament, which Attilio is too preoccupied to notice before it is irremediable, an emotional punch that comes off as an offhand reprimand on a man's preference swayed by his subliminal sexual impulse. "Concise" is possibly a misnomer whether one has the stomach for Benigni's interminable wittering, not just about poetry and probably a symptom of compulsive hyperactivity, which has become Benigni's cinema alter ego (with varying degrees of the said symptom). However, what brings home in the story's "sleeping beauty" scenario, when Attilio tends to a comatose Vittoria inside a mangy Iraqi hospital, trying everything to keep her on this side of the world against a ticking clock, is the ultimate bona-fides of one's love, all in its purity and altruism, and Benigni confers it with a romantic spin which actually works even to some dry-eyed souls, it is saccharine, but still within the palatable boundary. Numerous vignettes in Baghdad range from earnest (seeking help from an elderly pharmacist), farcical (a camel and its bad breath) to topically nerve-wracking (encountering a team of nervy, trigger-happy American soldiers) or somewhere between (the minefield incident for instance), anti-war message is duly purveyed but doesn't elicit the same catharsis as in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL mostly because of the blasé structure and curt tonal shifts. But, Benigni bequeaths us one last reveal near the finish-line when the true relationship between Attilio and Vittoria surfaces up, which encourages viewers to construe the entire movie as a radical redemption of a cheating husband, earning forgiveness from his ex-wife, with whom he is still very much in love and Vittoria's final realization is a brilliant touch, and given that a tiger and (ersatz) snow literally materialize concurrently in a prior sequence, the film reaches a satisfyingly poetic ending, if we bear in mind that Benigni has been on hiatus as a film director ever since (with only one acting job after), Attilio's exit scene could also providentially mark the valediction of Benigni's enduring screen avatar, loopy, puckish, importunate, and above all, incorrigibly romantic.

jamshid saeedi Before watching the movie i thought it would be a full length comedy like Benigni's first works or maybe an amusing fantasy like Pinocchio.but,it was more like the film "life is beautiful",a romantic comedy that was not as impressive as that one was . it is very similar to life is beautiful:both telling their romantic story in the background of a war and want to be a happy romance. but what the snow and tiger lacks, is it can't provoke the deep emotions of audiences like life is beautiful.most of the movie is based on the Benigni's improvising one liners and it made the movie more like a one man show that in some moments becomes boring,and Jean Reno as an Arab poet is not as interesting as his roles as gangsters and so. but beside these negative points i've made, the tiger and the snow is not a weak movie at all.it has a good sense of humor and is a drama in respect of post-war Baghdad .I really admire Benigni because of his style that tends to add up comedy and fantasy with human subjects.it's a simple story of a childish love to a woman that strangely begins in Italy and keeps on, in Iraq.but this romantic story can't be a lovely and memorable love story like great romances, because Benigni is very far from the character of a importunate lover, he is much more believable in the role of a kind father in the film like his character in the life is beautiful,his best movie.

kosmasp Begnini is walking/dancing/playing (whatever you want to call it ;o) ) on a very fine/thin line here. But he knows how to handle this romance/comedy/drama. Like he did with his previous Oscar winning picture! The performances are great, the situations are funny and dramatic or even sad. But you're always with the characters. There is one moment (Begnini is with Reno together in this scene) that doesn't feel right, but other than that, the movie flows. And while all hell breaks loose. you're tied to the story of a few characters ... waiting to see what is going to happen ... A great movie, with big feelings! :o)

Juan_from_Bogota Wonderful!, Beningni is truly an auteur! This wonderful story is about an Italian poet (Attilio De Giovanni - Benigni) with a beautiful and optimistic way to see life and that is deeply in love with the woman of his dreams (Vittoria - Nicoletta Braschi). When she suddenly appears in the real life!, he makes all what is possible to get her an make her fall in love of him, (and he really makes everything that is possible!!); to the point that the story, which starts in Rome, suddenly takes place in Irak, home of Attilio's best friend and poet Fuad (Jean Reno).This story, as Benigni's La Vita e Bella, shows comedy in the middle of tragical events (the war of Irak); comedy and drama beautifully joined together in one incredible love story. The love, as shown in this movie is so touching that shows the ideal of LOVE, the deepest facts of this feeling from a man to a woman that is represented in this masterpiece of Benigni's.I don't want to compare this film with La Vita e Bella, because i see this film as a complement of a Benigni's saga about love, tragedy and optimism (La Vita e Bella shows the love from father to son in the middle of the Nazi tragical events of world war II against the Jewish; and this film shows the love from a men to a woman in the middle of the actual events of war in Irak).Beautiful movie! totally recommended! 8/10