The dashed hopes of idealistic youth and the rationalizations that come with maturity provide rich fodder for a group of old college chums who reassemble for a weekend following the suicide of one of their peers. The Motown soundtrack is a side benefit.
Life Is Beautiful is the drama every comic probably wishes he had made. In this life-affirming Italian "concentration-camp comedy," Benigni uses the Holocaust as a backdrop for telling a heartfelt story about a father who protects his son from the gas chambers by the use of the only weapons at his command: his quick imagination, outlandish buffoonery, and scrappy determination.