Zahnstocher Johnny

I just watched the 1991 Italian movie "Johnny Stecchino" (or "Johnny Toothpick") on video. One of my all-time favorite films is "La Vita è bella" ("Life is Beautiful", 1997), another film that Roberto Benigni also directed, co-wrote, and played the lead role in. When I saw a preview of Benigni's comedy "Johnny Stecchino", I had to see the movie.

Benigni is truly a gifted man with comic elements that remind me in this film of the Marx Brothers in physicality and Mr. Bean in amazing simple ignorance. He plays a dual role. As Dante, a bus driver for a group of retarded young adults, he is hopelessly clueless and the highlight of his daily routine seems to be playing a silly trick (every day?! won't the fruit sellers catch on?!) resulting in his stealing a banana for his breakfast. He also plays a mafioso type, Johnny Stecchino, who has snitched on his fellow criminals and is now hiding for fear of his life.

Dante runs into lovely Maria (Nicoletta Braschi) who is really Johnny's wife, but she feigns an inexplicable attraction for Dante. She invites Dante to her grand villa in Palermo (Sicily), where we understand her true plot to have the lookalike simpleton killed so she can live happily with her Johnny.

The film is a comedy of misunderstandings with scenes of stolen bananas, introducing a shocked Roman Catholic Cardinal to cocaine (mistakenly as a diabetic medicine), the two look-alikes running into each other and the criminal pretending to be a mirror to keep himself hidden, a group of seeming mafiosi being led by Dante in singing a children's song enunciating the sounds that various animals make (is this an inside Italian joke, as this reminds me of the 1991 Italian film "Caro Diario" - see <http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0109382/usercomments-12> ?!), and more. Though I wish that Johnny didn't use offensive language, it was otherwise a zany and funny film showing off Benigni's comic genius. Santa Cleopatra!

--Dilip Barman, May 21, 2004

Wonderful roles for Roberto Benigni and Nicoletta Braschi. I am not sure whether they got together before or after this film, but if they co-operate in their marriage as much as they do in this film, they will stay together forever. This movie is so extraordinary well written, although you must understand some of the Italian life and habits. The subtle humor will be mostly appreciated I guess by Italians who have moved abroad. They will recognize the bits and pieces that ridicule the 'ol'country', but they are no longer part of it. In a way. Insurance fraud, coke sniffing, corrupted politicians, bribed judges... The people that are best of are the ones that either don't know or don't want to know.

The genius with which Benigni weaves plots is most clearly displayed in this film. Nothing in the film is left to chance. Every scene, every action is (eventually) connected to others in a hilarious web. I've seen this movie 6 or 7 times. My wife wants to rent it again! and I will watch it for the 7th or 8th, having fun and marveling at the intricacies of the plot.

An early episode is a silly parlor game called "the cabinet member's wife." What is that about? What's funny about that. It isn't, but the game returns about three-quarters of the way through with surprising twists.

People who don't watch foreign films because they don't like reading subtitles are missing a world of great films, and this is one of the best.

Still the most successful film financially in the history of the Italian cinema, Roberto Benigni's "Johnny Stecchino" displays the actor's out-of-this-world talents. The movie is a tale of a high-class mobster named Johnny Stecchino (Benigni) who has testified against many crime syndicates to avoid prison time and is now in hiding. Enter the dim-witted Dante (Benigni again) who is discovered by Stecchino's wife (real-life wife Nicoletta Braschi) and is then unwittingly made to look, dress and act just like her criminal husband so Dante will be killed instead. The plan will hopefully allow Stecchino to leave the country with no difficulty. The mistaken identity routine plays amazingly well as Benigni dominates the action as he always seems to do. The supporting cast is good enough to keep the project above water. Benigni continues to be a master performer and cinematic craftsman. 4.5 out of 5 stars.

...for see it. first, the lovely use of the legacy of old fashion tradition. the second, the genius of Roberto Benigni. not the last , Nicoletta Braschi. not the less , Palermo. and the predictable parts and the crumbs from Charlot , the romanticism and Italian spices. one of comedies who are more than humor, entertainment or moral lesson. but a trip across yourself. because the gift of Benigni is to tell, in smart manner, not a story but the story about his public. this film is a good example.