Review: ‘Italian for Beginners’ speaks for itself

Geoff Carter

Friday, March 8, 2002 | 9 a.m.

The Danish film "Italian for Beginners" is humble. I can't think of a better word to describe it. Lone Scherfig's film is so polite, unassuming and good-natured that you want to shake its hand after it's finished. It is shot on video, has no score and its credits are hand-written; it takes pains not to look flashy. Can a film be shy?

We meet the entire cast almost immediately: Andreas (Anders Berthelsen), the meek young pastor replacing Reverend Wredmann (Bent Mejding), who pushed his organist off the balcony in a fit; Olympia (Anette Stovelbaek), the clumsy baker's assistant; and her abusive father (Jesper Christensen).

There's the disagreeable Halfinn (Lars Kaalund); his lonely friend Jorgen (Peter Gantzler); the hairdresser Karen (Ann Eleonora Jorgensen); and her dying mother (Lene Tiemroth). And, of course, there's the pretty Giulia (Sarah Indrio Jensen) -- the only Italian among them.

Aside from the older folk -- the minister and the two parents, all mean as hell and half-insane -- it's a pretty likeable crew, given to minding its own business. Halfinn is a social misfit with little patience and a smart mouth, but he has his moments. Andreas seems too timid at first, but he toughens up fast. Nearly everyone makes some sort of life-change, and the catalyst is the Italian language.

Italian for Beginners, to be specific. Nearly everyone enrolls in a night course at the local college, purely out of loneliness. Before long, their lives begin to change in pleasant, though not unexpected ways. To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, everything was beautiful and nothing hurt -- for long.

Its performances transcend language: Berthelsen plays the pastor as vulnerable and just a little bit hip, a perfect candidate for a David Lynch film. Jorgensen, Jensen and Stovelbaek take what could be one-note roles and make them work. And Kaalund, with a manner halfway between Sean Penn and Sean Bean, is truly a jerk of all nations. He's annoying in any tongue.

"Italian for Beginners" is funny, touching and light. There's little more I can say about it that it can't say for itself, in whatever language you prefer to hear. It's not a deep conversation, but not all conversations have to be deep. Some can just be for the sake of being.