Life is Beautiful

(Miramax)

Comedian Roberto Benigni's controversial Holocaust fable about an Italian Jew who protects his son from the horrors of a Nazi death camp by pretending it's all a game earned Oscars for Best Actor and Best Foreign Film but also a lot of controversy. The concept is well-intended and at times even moving, but the way Guido capers about like the Hogan's Heroes gang at Stalag 13 trivializes what happened at places like Auschwitz and Dachau: no heads are shaved, and death takes place off screen.