Italian For Beginners - Region 2 DVD

This is a gentle, good-natured film, full of quirky dialogue and unforced humour. Scherfig derives a good deal of amusement from watching the gloomy, buttoned-up Danes gradually relaxing and expanding under the influence of their improved linguistic skills, and reaching out for happiness. (As usual in North European cinema, Italian equals everything that's spontaneous, life-loving and sexy.) True, the pro-togetherness message is banal, and the whole film's altogether a little too pat, especially in the final neat pairing-off and the way a couple of obstructive parents helpfully contrive to die just when they need to. Still, the freshness of the largely improvised performances, and Scherfig's affectionate regard for her characters, make for a film that's hard to dislike.

On the DVD: Italian for Beginners has no extras except the theatrical trailer. The transfer faithfully reproduces the mainly hand-held, digital video quality of the original. --Philip Kemp