Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

"The Italian", a debut film by Andrei Kravchuk, is an outstanding film by any standard; and yet the film failed to win any major awards – not even the consolation of a Best Foreign Film Oscar. It won the minor category of Children's film award created for the purpose at Venice, but nowhere else, as if a film about children automatically becomes a children's film.Three reasons spring to mind; it was a commercial dud possibly due to lack of commercial skills of the makers; contrary to public perception, shock value and financial success rules the fate of a movie even at the top festivals where the judges are mostly the mega-stars from Hollywood and around the world; and the debut production of a young person from a poor country still on the other side of the divide stood as little chance of an award as of Castro winning a Nobel Peace Prize.So what did I find exceptional in the movie? To start with the least important, the cinematography was par excellence. The depiction of desolate, gloomy environment of Russian winter, with telephoto shots of barbed wires quivering as if in the cold air; the claustrophobic shots of vast landscape (even if done through back projection) from the inside of cars and train were awesome.The second most outstanding quality of the film was the acting, particularly by all the child actors. It wasn't just great; it was breathtaking in its realism, as if the kids were chosen from an actual asylum which they weren't. The adults had no chance to compete against such talent, but managed to perform professionally.The most outstanding characteristic of the film got to be the director, whose command in every field – music; editing; locations; camera angles; choice of lenses and suppression of any tinge of sentimentality – was evident.I don't accept it's a rehash of Dickens's Oliver Twist suggested by some commentators. The harsh brutality of criminal gangs of 18th century Britain in Oliver Twist has nothing in common with the sad declension of Russian society and morale since the glasnost. If anything, the story has more in common with the magical realism of Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.That's why the unsentimental ending gels with the mood of the movie.

One of the reviewers was trying to convince us that this movie is nationalist, because it portrays orphanages and their staff in negative light. I have to strongly disagree. The bleakness of day to day life in Russia in transition, that this film vividly brings to life, can hardly be a fodder for any nationalist propaganda. Most of Hollywood movies are way more nationalist and self-deluding than anything we saw in this powerful little movie. Director Andrei Kravchuk tells this tragic, but ultimately uplifting story with just the right amount of sentiment.It ends with a slight touch of fairytale. After all, most of the time, life is a mix of tragedy and endless hope.

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.

Somewhat dull Russian film touches on a few poignant topics centering around a young orphan's adoption dilemma, but rarely achieves the emotional pull it should have. Mainly taking place inside and around an aging orphanage, the initial introduction to the gentle dynamics inside this home feel mediocre at best. Whether most performances lacked charisma, the poor translation from the Russian script, or an unhealthy disconnect between audio and video synchronicity made the film more of a bore, I'm sure it was a combination of the three which effectively rendered most potentially moving scenes lukewarm.The Italian, on paper, reads with noble intentions. But played out, the film feels surprisingly melodramatic and manipulative. The film's main actor, a young boy named Kolya Spiridonov, may look the part but cannot carry the demanded weight. Springing from uncomfortable post-editing, there usually feels like an unintentional eeriness surrounds the boy while observing his performance. The pain one abandoned child would harbor is completely relevant to this story, but Spiridonov clearly has not been given enough coaching to prepare for the part, and instead it feels like the filmmakers substituted one negative emotion for a less authentic one.Picking up a considerable amount once our young star actually proceeds to undergo his brief journey, it is already too late in the act to start building momentum that was needed earlier. It all amounts to one of those unfortunate circumstances where a heavy, underlying relevance found in potent themes ends up being trampled by incompetence, either from the misguided direction, technical miscalculations, or all around award-pandering mentality this surprisingly insignificant foreign film offers.