The title of this comment refers to one of the longest extended movie clips included in any 21st Century film, which is arguably the "good" part of THE TIGER AND THE SNOW. The merely "bad" aspects are the "bonuses" on the DVD, which include two of the most pompous and pretentious periods of prattle from the one-hit wonder (LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) husband-wife tag-team, director Roberto Benigni (the pitiful poet character Attilio de Giovanni) and producer Nicoletta Braschi (the mostly-comatose wishy-washy enigma character Vittoria) in two one-on-one interviews totaling 27 minutes and 44 seconds). Though the couple agree in labeling Roberto the Italian Charlie Chaplin, he's actually closer to the Boot's Robin Williams--on a REALLY bad day. And speaking of Williams, this misfire can't tie GOOD MORNING, V!ETNAM!'s shoelaces. While the latter effort constitutes a primer on how to do a modern bittersweet war movie with humorous touches, Benigni's embarrassing collage of ugly family inside jokes falls flatter than SPRINGTIME FOR H!TLER. In anything with even a 10% resemblance to reality, the American check-point soldiers would have wasted Attilio's ass three times over, and rightfully so. But go ahead, all you stuffed shirts awarding this a "10" because you don't have the guts to say the emperor has no clothes (or nothing more than white boxers here); your penance will be to sit through another five or six misshapen grotesques from the first couple of farcical fluff!

While I loved Roberto Begnini in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL and JOHNNY STECCHINO, I really had a hard time enjoying this film--though fortunately it got better as the film progressed. My biggest problem with it is that I felt that Begnini's character was really creepy. While the film is supposed to be a comedy of sorts, it wasn't all that funny and he came off as a very needy stalker. Last I checked, being a stalker was anathema to good comedy! It seems that every night Begnini dreams about marrying a lady and when he finally sees this woman (Nicoletta Braschi) in real life, he stalks her! In real life, such a guy would have a restraining order out against him or end up killing his "lady love" in some sort of psychotic murder-suicide spree! Others may have laughed at his "cute" advances towards this poor woman--I just felt uneasy.Later, this lady travels to Iraq just as the war is beginning which begs the question "is she 100% insane?!". And, shortly after arriving, she naturally is severely injured and is dying. When Begnini finds out, he drops everything in Rome and travels against all odds to Baghdad to do everything he can to save her. This portion of the film is actually pretty sweet, as he works so hard to keep her alive--it's quite touching,...though once again, I had to remind myself that he IS a stalker and traveled a couple thousand miles into a war zone because of his bizarre obsession.Strengths of the film were Begnini's performance (though at times, it did come off as essentially the same guy he was in LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL) and the latter half of the film (while not great--it was light-years ahead of the first half). Deficits were choppy editing and storytelling, occasionally confusing writing, an uncomfortable juxtaposition of comedy with tragedy and stalking as well as Jean Reno's inexplicable character--his motivations and everything about him seemed ill-defined and confusing. The bottom line is that despite being a very talented man, this is a huge letdown for Begnini and isn't an especially good film. Watchable but quite flawed.FYI--Nicoletta Braschi is Begnini's real-life wife and they have starred in quite a few films together.

The protagonist in this film is excellent: not only is he a poet who looks at life unflinchingly, loves it, describes it beautifully and suffers in it, he is also a a doer who manipulates the situations: trying his hardest to make things go his way, and last, but not least, a lover, who reminds one so of that old quote from Desiderata: "Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity & disenchantment, it is perennial as the grass.." I was amazed at the beauty in the film, the small touches of magic and the huge brush strokes of Iraqi landscape which contrasted with the civilized Italian urban scenes. A truly well-executed movie, tender and intelligent, well worth the reading of the subtitles.

I missed Roberto Benigni & and I miss his good movies .. and not since "A Beautiful Life" he has directed a successful movie.This movie is poetic and I wish I speak Italian to understand all the nice poetic speeches and the Italian poems.As in "A Beautiful Life" Benigni mixes the tragedy with a light comedy that is funny and touching in the same time.His performance was good .. Jean Reno was good .. Nicoletta Braschi wasn't bad.It is a good movie that you will fell in love with it if you are a Benigni fan ..and will at least like it if not.