JOHNNY STECCHINO Movie Review

I admit it; I'm a Benigni fan. There are a lot of us around, yet until now, the movies of Italy's premier cinematic comic, Roberto Benigni, have simply not caught on in the United States. There are lots of reasons; some of his comedy, as in every country, is based on a national sense of humor and simply doesn't travel well—inadequate subtitling doesn't help. Some members of the audience, as with a Jerry Lewis or a Jim Carrey, just won't find him funny. But I suspect that the biggest reason for Benigni's relatively unknown status in the U.S. is simply the huge core audience that never would dream of going to a foreign language movie at all. And Roberto Benigni not only speaks a “foreign” language, he seems to inhabit another planet. (His luck may change when America gets a look at his Life Is Beautiful, which snatched one of the top awards at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival and is poised to put Benigni in a different league.) Johnny Stecchino is a typical Benigni vehicle (though less inspired than The Monster), in which the skinny nebbish plays a sweet school bus driver who's mistaken for a ruthless mob boss. (Benigni, of course, plays both the bus driver and the gangster.) That's about it plotwise, but if you find yourself watching Johnny Stecchino (Johnny Toothpick), think of yourself as being in quicksand; you're going to come out way ahead if you don't struggle. Maybe you don't like big, noisy pratfalls, confused identities, or slamming doors, but if you let your guard down for 100 minutes or so, you just might find that your natural defenses are worn down enough so that you laugh in spite of yourself. When that happens—and there's a good chance that it will—Benigni's benign invasion of America will, with a little luck, be one step closer to reality.

NEXT STOP … The Monster, Down by Law, The Nutty Professor (1963)

1992 (R) 100m/C IT Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Paolo Bonacelli, Ignazio Pappalardo, Franco Volpi; D: Roberto Benigni; W: Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami; C: Giuseppe Lanci; M: Evan Lurie. VHS, LV NLC, IME, FCT