Love, Italian-Style

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS...IS DANISH

Italian for Beginners is a romantic comedy in which six sweet but damaged thirtysomethings look for love. Sweet, however, is not the same thing as cute, and cute this odd bird of a film is not. Rather, it is Danish. It touches upon not only dating but also more traditional Scandinavian movie themes, such as death, loss of faith in God, and cruel, abusive parents. One character’s comic klutziness is the result of fetal alcohol syndrome. Another commits a mercy killing. And yet everyone ends up happily, if shakily, paired off—imagine Ingmar Bergman writing and directing an episode of Friends and you begin to get a sense of this winning, melancholy picture. The actual writer-director is a woman named Lone Scherfig, who has worked in Danish television. The cast includes a number of Danish TV stars. One standout is Peter Gantzler, who plays the kind of gentle, socially retarded nice guy who would be either sentimentalized or stripped of his dignity in a Hollywood comedy. Gantzler’s previous films include Hjcelp! Jeg Er en Fisk (Help! I’m a Fish), which we can only hope will be released here soon. (Rating: ★★★)

BRUCE HANDY