Movie Reviews

It's like something Charles Dickens might've penned...had Chuck lived in present-day Russia.

The Italian is molto bene, a poignant and engaging drama, thanks in part to a terrific turn by young Kolya Spiridonov. Abandoned as a baby, six-year-old Spiridonov now spends his days in a depressing, isolated orphanage, where some unfortunates turn to hooking and thieving in order to survive.

The orphanage's drunken headmaster, Yur Itskov, works in cahoots with greedy adoption broker Maria Kuznetsova. One of the battle-ax's clients, an affluent Italian couple, takes an interest in Spiridonov and wants to give him a happy home under the Tuscan sun.

But plucky Spiridonov—nicknamed "The Italian" by other orphans—becomes obsessed instead with tracking down his birth mother. He quickly learns how to read and swipes his personal file to get his mom's address. Bidding "arrivederci!" to the orphanage, he boards a commuter train bound for the big city, with Boris and Natasha, er, Itskov and Kuznetsova in anxious pursuit.

The Italian won't do much for Russia's tourism—the countryside looks barren, the buildings are dilapidated, the weather's perpetually gloomy. But it provides great atmosphere for the tyke's tough journey.

Director Andrei Kravchuk wisely avoids sentimental trappings and goes for a very realistic approach. He also gets a surprisingly credible and affecting performance from Spiridonov, who capably carries the bulk of the film despite his tender age.

By the end, I was rooting for the kid to find his mom—and for this fine film to find an audience.

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