The Italian

R: We don't get many Russian movies at the Michigan, so I had high hopes for this one. It wasn't bad, but it's not fantastic either.

Adoption is a sensitive issue in Russia. They've got negative population growth to begin with, and there's something about Westerners buying the babies that you do have that, well, you can understand why it might be a sensitive issue. For that reason, I find the somewhat unflattering depiction of foreigners forgivable. It's one of many standard tropes that appear -- the two girls in the orphanage are, literally, a virgin in a mother's role and a whore -- and so I wouldn't say that there's anything particularly original about the movie. There are, however, some pretty visceral scenes, and I have to admit: russian kids are cute.

K: I felt like this movie was pretty conflicted--you're supposed to admire the boy for turning down an easy life with adoptive parents in a foreign country in favor of staying in his homeland and taking the chance finding his birth mother. But although I (kind of) admired his plucky, Disney-esque perseverance in the face of extreme odds, I kept hoping that he would just give up and go be happy in Italy with people who would love him. The orphanage (and Russia in general) comes off as dirty, corrupt, and ill-run...not to mention the fact that he is searching for an end that is uncertain in the extreme.

On a more superficial level, the whole thing was a little too Incredible Journey for me: boy goes on a journey and meets a wacky cast of characters who help (or thwart) him along the way. All he needed was a talking animal sidekick (a wise-cracking cat, maybe?) and he'd be ready to go.

That said, I know that there's a huge subtext to this movie that may be more subtle (as in many Disney epics, the subtext is more of a supertext) to someone with more context than I have...say...Ross.