BallWubba Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

KnotStronger This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

SnoopyStyle Six year old Vanya Solntsev lives in a crowded rough orphanage in remote Russia. An Italian couple arrives looking to adopt him. He gains the nickname "The Italian". Despite pressure to go to Italy, he becomes obsessed with finding his birth mother. With the help of the older kids, they steal his file and he runs away to track her down.It's a brutal and yet slightly touching world of an unusual family. It takes a little while to center the movie around the little boy. Honestly, the movie needs to point the camera at the kid and follow him for the first twenty minutes. There are so many little kids that it takes too long to pick him out of the pack. Other than that, this is a good Dickensian tale. It has violence but the kids live in this world as if it's normal.

slowboatmo It seems like this film is put together by so many loosely connected, pedestrian pieces that it barely reflects the true concept of a film. Even by the end of the film, the different pieces fail to come together and produce a profound, satisfying feeling for the audiences. The director dabbles all over the place but can not come up with even one scene that he hopes would be touching and profound. The 6-year-old orphan did have a wonderful performance but the director never succeeds in adding depth and dimensions to his character. Instead, the film is only left with one-dimensional characters. I don't understand why so many viewers rave about this film. It is at its best a mediocre film that is not even able to match some of the conventional Hollywood films with fully developed characters. A major failure for the director.

lastliberal It is not likely that I will find Andrei Kravchuk's first film, A Christmas Miracle< in my search for Christmas movies to get me in the spirit; but, his second film, and Russia's entry into the Oscar race is truly heartwarming and an outstanding sophomore venture for the new director.Six-year-old Vanya (Kolya Spiridonov) is being adopted from a Russian orphanage by an Italian couple. While waiting, he comes across a mother looking for her son, who has long since been adopted. He decides to find his own mother and sets out to make this happen, even though he has already be "sold." Of course, the people who sold him are trying to find him as he journeys to find his mother. Six years old and off on a journey well beyond his years. Like so many children in the world he has to grow up too fast - most because of war or tragedy like Darfur.You will be torn by what the children at the orphanage do to survive, and you will be heartened by the strangers who help him along the way. Most of all, you will find that there are some great movies out there that do not depend on CGI or excessive violence to entertain. This is certainly one of them.

Roland E. Zwick "The Italian" is a touching tale of a six-year-old Russian orphan who goes in search of the mother who gave him to a foundling home when he was just an infant.Vanya has spent virtually his entire life growing up in a substandard orphanage run by an alcoholic director and a cold-hearted administrator. The children there live in virtual squalor with no effort on the part of the leaders to properly instruct or educate them. The future for most of these youngsters is a bleak one indeed, with a life of petty thievery and/or prostitution the most likely outcome for any of them not fortunate enough to catch the eye of some prospective, loving parent. Yet, as the movie begins, young Vanya's personal nightmare seems to be coming to an end as a kind Italian couple has come to Russia with the intention of adopting Vanya and taking him back to Italy with them. However, before the proper papers can be signed, the boy, sensing he must act quickly before it is too late, sets off on a long, arduous journey to see if he can find the mother who abandoned him as a baby."The Italian" is a compelling slice-of-life drama that has a great deal to say not only about the appalling conditions faced by orphans in Russia today, but about the determination of the human spirit and the need for love that exists at the center of every human heart. Director Andrei Kravchuk brings a near-documentary quality to the film, as he focuses his camera on the details of everyday life in the orphanage and the countryside through which Vanya travels. This air of naturalism extends to the actors as well, particularly young Kolya Spiridonov, who, as Vanya, gives a performance that can only be termed extraordinary and heartbreaking. After this film and the brilliant "The Return," I'm convinced that Russia has some of the finest child actors in the business. Indeed, there is nothing less than a superb performance in the entire film."The Italian" is a film tuned to the realities of life in a harsh environment, where cruel and violent deeds often share the stage with acts of random kindness. Vanya's epic adventure provides more than ample opportunity for him to experience both, but it is the magnanimity he encounters at the hands of strangers that lingers longest in memory.