Good movie but grossly overrated

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

OMFG i've seen some good dogma films before and i think the dogma films are just normal films trying to be different, but this one is bad enough to make me post a comment. IFB is like the regular romantic films but much more embarrassing, with all those poker faces and people looking for true love. The actors seemed to be doing the same scene again and again, the bakery girl should have end up tired throwing things in the floor in her real life, after taking about impotency that much that actor should be gay rigth now, the pastor looks so confused you get tired of waiting for him to do something. The characters are so shortlined and shortwritten that you only need one scene to know how they are and what they will do, so cliché. There's not a single one touching scene like in the other dogma films, here scenes are so fake that you can only laugh (or cry), for example the father of the stupid bakery girl, he said two phrases: "Your mother left me and you are like her: a b1tch", and he repeated this again and again till he died. This film ranks Meg Ryans hits but with dizzy camera of course.

"Italian for Beginners (Italiensk for begyndere)" is yet another of the 2001 movies for grown-ups about adults dealing with death. It shows how death in the family leads to loneliness, though not as light-hearted as indicated by the preview trailer.It is a poignant slice-of-life of a Danish town of misfits, in the earthy, gritty manner of "The Full Monty" or "Billy Elliott."Proudly flashing its minimalist Dogme 95 certificate (hence the lack of illustrative soundtrack songs), it has a warm-hearted understanding of the spectrum of human foibles.Here the woe-be-gone come together, improbably enough, at an Italian class in a local community center, with all that learning a romance language implies. At least that's what I could get out of it despite the older ladies behind me out for a matinée who decided that a sub-titled movie entitled them to talk loudly throughout, as well as kick my seat.(originally written 2/24/2002)

Usually i can't stand romance movies, they always tend to exaggerate everything about love and relationships in a way that i just plain stupid. But this movie manages to keep a nice pace and great cinematography. The movie built up my expectations for every minute and manages to fulfill them, and this is just incredible.This is the best danish film i have seen since Festen (The Celebration), i have seen a lot of danish movies but "Festen" and "Italiensk for begyndere" stand out in a remarkable way.If you liked this movie a would like to recommend movies from from Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, movies like "Fucking Åmal" and "Tillsammans" for example.

Life in a dull Danish provincial town is only partly enlivened by an Italian night class.This is one of these newfangled movies ("Dogma" for those in the know) where the whole thing is captured on video camera, lighting is natural-and-available and all music has to come from a visible source on screen.Here we have camera work so wobbly that it looks like the cameraman has been taken by surprise by some of the action - either that for the director (Lone Sherfig) doesn't know the Danish phrases for "cut" or "let's go again - the cameraman wasn't ready!"We are in a Mike Leigh world of small people with flaws trying to make a life in difficult circumstances. There seems a lot of deaths, but in this grey world you can almost call them mercy killings!Finn is the marginal lead character (just ahead of the young new pastor) as he is both the coffee shop manager - for a while at least - and the stand-in Italian teacher after the original teacher has a heart attack in class. Given that he is fluent in Italian already you wonder why he needs to attend in the first place, but maybe it is the social scene that interest him?While you may knock the grade Z production values it tells a lot of truths. The main one is that life is nothing but a string of embarrassing moments played off against small moments of pleasure or diversion.