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I'M NOT SCARED Send This Review to a Friend
In truth, "I'm Not Scared," a finely made Italian import directed by Gabriele Salvatores, can get rather scary. The film focuses on a 10-year-old named Michele, played with childlike innocence by Giuseppe Cristiano. He discovers a blind boy hidden in a pit, and although he befriends and feeds the lad, he keeps it a secret.
What Michele doesn't realize is that the boy has been kidnapped and the strange goings on at home involve his father. As the film is told from Michele's perspective, the machinations in the adult world are secondary, but also loom as a frightening threat. Desperate people do desperate things.
"I'm Not Scared" has been written by Niccoló Ammaniti and Francesca Marciano based on a novel by Ammaniti. The film is strong on atmosphere and gives the required feeling of a child moving in his own world, but bound by family loyalties and unaware of the trap into which he has fallen. It also thrives on the compassion that Michele shows for the discovered child who is akin to wild creature as a result of what has happened to him.
The film has the power to draw an audience into its orbit and works up considerable suspense. A Miramax Films release.
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