I'm Not Scared (R) (108 min.) - Sustaining a child's point of view while grownups do terrible things is a hard act for filmmakers to pull off. It's too tempting as an adult to stray into grownup perspectives. To Kill a Mockingbird did it best, managing to retain Scout Finch's innocence amid racism and violence. That such a classic film comes to mind while viewing the Italian drama I'm Not Scared is a compliment to director Gabriele Salvatores.
Both films share a strong sense of place. Rather than the Depression-era Deep South, I'm Not Scared is set in the sun-dappled wheat fields of southern Italy in the summer of 1978. Salvatores, a 1992 foreign-language Oscar winner for Mediterraneo, quickly establishes the simple summer life of 10-year-old Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano). We see him running through wheat fields with his younger sister in tow, accepting dares and resenting a bully who claims ownership of an isolated, abandoned farmhouse. The sunny surroundings are a tranquil contrast to the dark intentions at work.
On a trip to the farmhouse alone, Michele discovers a pit covered with sheet metal. Prying it open reveals a human foot, which scares Michele away. He doesn't tell anyone; this is his secret, his advantage over everyone, including his parents. When he returns to the farmhouse, what appeared to be a corpse turns out to be a boy his age, Filippo (Mattia Di Pierro), starving, blinded by darkness and very frightened.
It doesn't spoil the plot to reveal that Filippo is a kidnapping victim and Michele's parents are involved with the scheme. Salvatores never lets us know more than Michele does, making I'm Not Scared a nifty thriller. The key remains the film's constant, childlike perspective: Conversations among kidnappers are overheard after bedtime, a plan to rescue Filippo is painfully naive, and a convoy of police helicopters is something to celebrate even after Michele knows the truth. The movie transfers Michele's vulnerability to the audience, making a story without much violence seem more brutal than it is.
Cristiano and Di Pierro are remarkably at ease in their first film roles, forging a bond that is entirely believable. Di Pierro has the more demanding role, a sufferer with a feral edge that results from his imprisonment. But don't underestimate the less showy yet subtle performance by Cristiano. Adult characters are, by the nature of Salvatores' film, secondary tools. Michele's mother, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon conveys the conflict between maternalism and materialism. His father (Dino Abbrescia) is a good man driven by desperation, and their mysterious new "friend" Sergio (Diego Abatantuono) is cryptically menacing; in childlike fashion, Michele sees Sergio as a threat to his sleeping space, not his and Filippo's lives.
The determination of Salvatores' film to sacrifice shocks to achieve dramatic credibility is admirable. This is how a kidnapping would seem to a 10-year-old, not the flash and dazzle of Man on Fire or its shuttling of a young victim to the background while grownups act tough. The film ends when Michele is just beginning to understand the true nature of the game he has been playing. Coming of age on screen is rarely so unromantic, so sneakily gripping, as it plays out in this movie.
I'm Not Scared is shown in Italian with English subtitles. A
