The Italian (2007)

The story was unnecessarily confusing during the entire first half. I understood that that a kid was being adopted, but I didn't understand the pecking order of the place and who the older kids were and why they seemed to be outside of the jurisdiction of the orphanage while living there and running a business, including what appeared to be a prostitution ring. Also, despite the fact that the entire thing was subtitled, it was painfully obvious that almost no one could act.

The story was typical wish-fulfillment: Vanya, a little boy in a Russian orphanage, is being adopted by an Italian couple -- which means money for the institution's director. Vanya, however, is holding out hope that his mother will come back for him and is rather worried about the prospect of being in Italy when she inevitably comes knocking. So he starts scheming and the whole thing devolves into "scrappy innocent triumphs over the evil moneygrubbers," kind of like a live action 101 Dalmatians with a grubby little boy instead of a passel o' pups.

C-