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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
An introverted village boy discovers another boy imprisoned in a hole in the ground, and goes on to find out why he is kept there...
The whodunit element of the storyline, adapted from the novel by Niccolò Ammaniti, provides the film with a backbone, but I think it is not its main attraction. Although the front of the dvd box screams at us: Secrets! Betrayal! Murder! and the summary on the back promises us a 'suspense thriller' about an 'unspeakable crime', this is no fare for those who insist on gore and adrenaline. Most of the unpleasantness is verbal or happens between the scenes we are shown. But this story doesn't need big shocks to keep you (or at least me) watching.
To me this is a beautiful, contemplative film about how normal people may behave in the face of a crime they can't choose to overlook. You can't really tell what the characters will say or decide next, how they will react to the other characters' actions. You care for the people and you want them to make the 'right' choices - but you don't always know which option is morally preferable.
The child actors are absolutely brilliant... they are never too cutesy, and in fact you can never catch them acting. Both the children and the established adult actors are completely natural and convincing 'real people'. The dialogues are very well written, but the actors seem to be even better when they have no lines. Melodramatic outbursts are carefully avoided, as are easy conclusions about who's bad and who's good.
All this is set in a countryside that looks endless but is claustrophobic at the same time, and backed by a soundtrack that knows its place. In short: a pleasure to watch. In spite of the subject matter it won't depress you.
I have no complaints about sound and image quality, but I was a bit disappointed that the extras found on the Italian edition (making-of, director's commentary, gallery, trailer) are entirely absent from this version.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I would highly recommend this beautifully scripted and photographed film. I expected to see quite a creepy film about kidnap and murder (as it says on the cover of the DVD), however it failed to mention much about the talented young italian actors playing free, adventurous friends and the fabulous cinematography across the wild, rural landscape of Italy. I saw this film at a local Film Society and it has been by far the most moving and beautiful foreign film I have seen.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
I fully endorse what the previous reviewer has said. Don't believe the way the film is hyped on the box. It is actually a much more subtle and beautiful film than the crass blurb would suggest. Personally I would have done the end of the film slightly differently but that is only a minor criticism of a film which is first class and well worth watching.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Really rather good
I would recommend this film. Natural, freeflowing acting and a loosely defined plot underpins the poverty of rural Italian life and the endless, stiflingly hot summer days when... Read more
Published 15 days ago by J. Blythe
I`m not scared
A brilliantly set low buget film set in South Italy in the 70s giving a great atmosphere of kids playing in the hot summer. Read more
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Magnificent Desolation
This Italian film rises above the conventional thriller on many levels. Foremost, its stunning cinematography thrusts the viewer into the midst of the desolate sun-scorched grain... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2009 by F. S. L'hoir
superb,simple,beautiful subtitled film.one for parents.
this was listed under thriller.It isnt that really.Its a perfectly acted and wonderfully shot film about childhood and doing the right thing and about the corruption of the... Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2009 by Mr. J. Fowler
Phenomenal
Impeccably shot and beautifully acted, this is a tense, disturbing and riveting thriller. You really don't know where it's headed, just that it'll be somewhere deeply horrific. Read more
Published on 7 July 2008 by Mercutio
Quality Drama with a side order of Sicilian Countryside, 5 Jul 2008.
Quality Drama with a side order of Sicilian Countryside., 5 Jul 2008
Plot:
Thriller dealing with the loss of innocence set in southern Italy. Read more
Plot:
Thriller dealing with the loss of innocence set in southern Italy. Read more
Published on 6 July 2008 by I. Sidhu
Quality Drama with a side order of Sicilian Countryside.
Plot:
Thriller dealing with the loss of innocence set in southern Italy. A ten-year-old boy discovers a young child chained up and starving in an abandoned farmyard. Read more
Thriller dealing with the loss of innocence set in southern Italy. A ten-year-old boy discovers a young child chained up and starving in an abandoned farmyard. Read more
Published on 5 July 2008 by I. Sidhu
Hollywood could learn something from this
Children are running. The day is bright, the field where they scamper is golden. Accompanied by a speedy violin track, the camera barely keeps up as the kids hurtle forward, their... Read more
Published on 3 July 2008 by Billy Ray Cyrus
I'm not scared
My first bit my not go down well, but I think Amazon are crap really..tthey border on corrupt practices at times.. Read more
Published on 2 July 2008 by D. Cowan
Just beautiful
A lovely, moving and poetic film. Beautifully photographed, superbly acted. I even found the string quartet of the music score very moving. This is a film to see.
Published on 20 April 2008 by J. N. Melone
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