Quo vado?

i saw the Spanish dubbed version of this film with my wife who is a Spanish Civil Servant. The Spanish Civil Service and government structure is similar to that of Italy, so the humor, much of which rests upon the way the system works, is easily understood in Spain. Both of us thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I heard my wife on at least a couple of occasions guessing the next bureaucratic maneuver that the recalcitant civil servant would use in his effort to maintain his position. The film effectively uses both Nordic and Latin stereotypes. It brought me back to the days of my youth, when movies such as "La Dolce Vita" or "Bread and Chocolate" made me laugh out loud, while providing me with an education on the difference between cultures.

We have certain ... well prejudices about different nationalities. Sometimes even the people of a land can see certain things that can be attributed to a lot of people. Take Italians for example ... they have a charm about them, but they also can be quite hot headed. Now obviously that is not true of every single one of them.

But the movie makes fun of these preconceptions we and they themselves have. Like waiting in a line patiently. Again if you dissect the movie and you feel this is offensive, you will not hav fun watching this at all. Which would be a shame because through all the things that are said and shown (the love of the mother is another major thing, gender roles in general), this takes them and makes fun of them.

And all that with some heart added to it. The ending may be a bit too much (and also quite the radical change from one second to the other as it seems), but it still works if you let it.

One of the best european comedies i've ever seen. LOL

The movie is a true comedy. Its only drawback is its very limited audience. It's a movie made for Italians and Greeks. Germans, North Europeans and others should not waste their time on this. They will not be able to conceive the majesty of it. They are also kindly requested not to ruin the overall rating of this masterpiece with their votes. :-) Thank you.

The negative reviewers are taking this a whole lot too seriously. I watched this on the plane a few days ago and it made me laugh out loud - not easy in those circumstances. It's not subtle, nor full of elegant wit, but it is funny. It's not exactly Fellini (who, strangely, made a similar film with Marcello Mastroianni, if I remember correctly). Anyone who's spent time in these countries, and I have, knows there's a grain of truth in these stereotypes. Italians are impatient drivers, Norwegians do like to bathe naked in the snow. Etc. As for the Mafia...that no longer exists, so we are told. Except that trials of so called gangsters have been going on for years now, but witnesses keep disappearing (check the news on google). So that particular stereotype might just be accurate. I have an Italian friend who took me to visit his relatives near Naples. One of the relatives was a civil engineer who had built a road that bypassed a particular village. That road was used exclusively for his friends and relatives for some years before it became a public highway. That is true from my own experience, so all the reviewers on here who say the stereotypes are just that...well, no. Anyway, if you are too earnest to enjoy this film, stick to something more philosophically challenging.