I'm Not Scared (2003)
aka Io non ho paura
Directed by Gabriele Salvatores
Written by Niccolò Ammaniti & Francesca Marciano

I had very little patience for this beautiful Italian film about a young boy who discovers that his family has been keeping another little boy in a cave. From the trailer, I thought this was going to be some kind of ghost story, but it's actually about kidnapping, with the drama coming from the boy's moral confrontation with his family.

Though lusciously filmed, the film's pace and content held nothing for me but boredom. The simple-minded morality and dialogue might be a side-effect of English subtitling, but who knows. I don't imagine I'd have cared about it even if I understood non-menu-based Italian.

At any rate, I wasn't scared, by any means. Just increasingly sleepy.

Review by Rachel Tension