- 8
This is wrenching melodrama of Dickensian proportions, but without epic sweep or period lushness.
—Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune
- 8
...pulls you into a richly atmospheric, persuasively inhabited world teeming with foundlings and pathos.
—Manohla Dargis New York Times
- 8
By the end, I was rooting for the kid to find his mom--and for this fine film to find an audience.
—Matt Stevens E!
- 7
It's a wish-fulfillment fantasy posing as hard-edged realism.
—Peter Rainer Christian Science Monitor
- 7
...surpasses cliches and still delivers a novel finale that's heartwarming.
—Bill Stamets Chicago Sun-Times
- 7
Before reaching a bittersweet finale that doesn't ring as loudly as it should, The Italian starts to look too much like a neo-realist Home Alone sequel...
—Keith Phipps Onion AV Club
- 7
...a highly effective heart-tugger...
—Lou Lumenick New York Post
- 7
...director Andrei Kravchuk's fictional hearttugger exposes a troubling real-life practice in contemporary Russia: the buying and selling of abandoned children to rich foreign couples.
—Ken Fox TV Guide
- 7
...half sweet, half bitter.
—Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly
- 7
For all its sly appraisals, grouty surfaces and hard-luck situations, The Italian is underneath it all a fairy-tale...
—Carina Chocano Los Angeles Times
- 6
A waif's doleful eyes make easy tools of manipulation, and, though The Italian is guilty of abusing them for viewer approval, the final shot movingly restores their importance, a reminder that, in the need for spiritual individuality, a child's gaze is also ours.
—Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine
- 6
...a frustrating disappointment that promises much more than it ultimately delivers.
—Tim Knight Reel
- 6
...once the Italian hits the road, The Italian loses its way.
—Ethan Alter Premiere
- 5
A film more fully committed to its subject (and to the moody ecstasy of Russian fatalism) might have explored the shattered fantasies of reunification that are the fate of most kids dumped by an underclass itself broken by want and drink. Lured, perhaps, by the promise of international markets, Kravchuk instead opts for routine uplift, and once the heroic journey is set in motion, the rest is ballast.
—Ella Taylor Village Voice
- 5
A film more fully committed to its subject (and to the moody ecstasy of Russian fatalism) might have explored the shattered fantasies of reunification that are the fate of most kids dumped by an underclass itself broken by want and drink. Lured, perhaps, by the promise of international markets, Kravchuk instead opts for routine uplift, and once the heroic journey is set in motion, the rest is ballast.
—Ella Taylor LA Weekly