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Italian, The
EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 25 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Family/Kids | Foreign
Written by: Andrei Romanov
Directed by: Andrei Kravchuk
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 19, 2007
DVD: May 22, 2007
Running Time: 97 minutes, Color
Origin: Russia
Language(s): Russian (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some violence, sexual content, language and thematic issues
Starring Kolya Spiridonov, Denis Moiseenko, Sasha Sirotkin, Andrei Yelizarov, Vladimir Shipov, Polina Vorobieva, Olga Shuvalova, and Dima Zemlyanko
In his feature directorial debut, director Andrei Kravchuk addresses with intelligence and poignancy the urgent issue of illegal adoption in Russia, which has become a well-documented international crisis. The Italian is based on the true story of a small Russian boy abandoned in an orphanage who goes in search of his birth mother. (Sony Pictures Classics)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
It's a carefully and almost classically balanced combination of ingredients, blending dirty-faced realism (so much more damning because it judges and condemns no one) with mystical fable of quest and homecoming.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Earns its happy ending like few other contemporary dramas concerned with the fate of a child. It puts you through hell for that ending, in fact, hell being modern-day Russia.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Vanya's journey to find his mom is not easy or picturesque or heartwarming. But it's also never without hope.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
Combining the influences of Italian neorealism with Dickensian melodrama, Andrei Kravchuk's simultaneously tough-minded and sentimental The Italian is as bracing as it is moving.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
I was utterly gripped by The Italian. The only problem is that I was rooting for the bad guys.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
There is something slightly magical about the lighting, almost as if this were a fantasy land from which Vanya might actually make an escape. This sense of unreality, of magical thinking and wishing, carries the story and Vanya through a remarkable journey.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
Equal parts "Oliver Twist" and "Pinocchio," Russian director Andrei Kravchuk's fictional hearttugger exposes a troubling real-life practice in contemporary Russia: the buying and selling of abandoned children to rich foreign couples.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
At heart, The Italian is a Dickensian tale that paints a vivid portrait of post-Glasnost Russia en route to a four-handkerchief ending.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
It's a wish-fulfillment fantasy posing as hard-edged realism.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Before reaching a bittersweet finale that doesn't ring as loudly as it should, The Italian starts to look too much like a neo-realist "Home Alone" sequel, as Spiridonov outwits his pursuers in one scene after another.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
The result is a deeply moving experience, alternately funny and sad.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
It's foreign, it's inspiring, it has an adorably resourceful kid; it depicts grinding misery in a land far from West Newton, and it holds out the possibility of clambering over all that misery to attain your dream.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
It's an old-fashioned Soviet road movie, filled with kind souls of the otherwise desperate (and at times predatory) world.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
The result is a picture half sweet, half bitter. Charles Dickens would approve.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason Anderson
The Italian belongs in group of excellent recent Russian films -- most notably Andrei Zvyagintsev's "The Return" and Boris Khlebnikov and Aleksei Popogrebsky's "Roads to Koktebel" -- that have examined the effects of the country's woes on its youngest and most vulnerable citizens, as well as the problems faced by any child unfortunate enough to have faulty or absent parents. At its best, The Italian conveys this grave issue with admirable clarity and power.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
A powerful indictment of Russia's illegal adoption industry - and a story of pipsqueak resolve and resilience - The Italian is clear-eyed and tough in its depiction of a corrupt, atrophied social order.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Andrea Gronvall
May be derivative, but it's still engrossing, largely because of its appealing juvenile lead.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
A remarkably compelling presence, Spiridonov commands attention without pandering or appealing to pity. In fact, for a 6-year-old, he is possessed of an uncanny poise.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
The film flirts frequently with sentimentality, falling for it heedlessly at a couple of crucial junctures. Still, the overall style is more astringent than moist, and the hero is a little toughie of endearing tenderness.
Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan
The juvenile performances are impressive, as they usually are in foreign films, and Spiridonov handles some grueling material with impressive maturity. But the movie comes undone with an abrupt and preposterous finale.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
Other than the unsatisfactory ending, however, there's much that is commendable in the The Italian, not the least of which are its social criticisms of the buying and selling of children through the adoption businesses currently thriving in Russia and neighboring eastern European countries. In some respects, unfortunately, not much has changed since the world was introduced to little Oliver Twist nearly two centuries ago.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
There are too many familiar faces in this story, from kindhearted whores to street-urchin bullies. But even if circumstances edge toward the unlikely, Kravchuk and Spiridonov make an effective team, exploring the realities that lead to so much heartbreak for so many children.
Read Full Review >Premiere Ethan Alter
The depiction of everyday life at the orphanage is far more compelling than Vanya's personal quest. It's unfortunate that once the Italian hits the road, The Italian loses its way.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
Lured, perhaps, by the promise of international markets, Kravchuk instead opts for routine uplift, and once the heroic journey is set in motion, the rest is ballast.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Chad S. gave it a7:
There are two women in Kolya's life; Nataha(Polina Vorobieva) and Irka(Olga Shuvalova). Both are orphaned girls who were never adopted; the former is a young housefrau, and the latter is a whore. Nataha wants Vanya(Kolya Spiridonov) to leave with the Italian couple, but Irka believes it's more important to find his birth mother. "The Italian" asks the viewer to weigh the political against the personal. If you agree with Irka's decision to kidnap Vanya, their journey is deemed as a necessary one; an imperative to maintaining one's identity. Nataha, on the other hand, can be easily construed as the real hero, even though she's unseen once "The Italian" turns into a travelogue of bleak Russian landscapes. Nataha is a traitor of sorts, a benign cog in the machine that funnels kids out of the country, but she understands how ultra-leftist affect the welfare and potential happiness for a throwaway child. She understands that a child is not a national resource. At the end, Vanya's narration indicates what the filmmaker's beliefs are concerning the illegal adoption of Russian orphans in heartbreaking fashion.
David G. gave it an8:
A very touching movie, this tells the story of a young orphan, passed over by a family who has paid the corrupt head of the orphanage. For once, a Russian movie that is not based on nationalistic fervour.
