Il Postino is sweet little movie about an actual nice, intelligent but soft-spoken soul who, because we are in the movies, gets to meet a legendary modern poet living in temporary exile and understands why poetry (and that key word Metaphor, which flies over the heads of other locals) is the key to someone's soul. It's definitely a light-weight affair that doesn't have a typical sort of antagonist-conflict going on, albeit there's some political intrigue over Communists and the time period being one where a figure like Neruda, an out and out one, faced real pressures and one minute could go back to Chilie and the next not.
I didn't find the political material so compelling, in fact I kind of tuned out from all of that. What was charming about the movie is Troisi, who was ill during the making of this and somehow one can tell his passion for the material despite how low key his character seems (Ebert thought Mario and his dad character were supposed to be a word I don't need to reprint here, and then realized he was normal but didn't have anything to talk about, which is kind of funny). It's also how he interacts with Noiriet, who is delightful in the role. The female actress Cucinotta is just Okay, but at least there the writers make a character that isn't simply a foil for the lead male but does have her own thoughts and desires. We see how the poetry opens her up like it does with Mario.
Full disclosure, I'm not entirely sure I would have sought this film out, at least not at this time in my life, if not for my current obsession with trying to see as many films as possible that were once on the IMDb top 250 (I'm a weirdo film Mogwai that way). I am glad I saw Il Postino as it has a good message about the power of teaching and education on a practical level - if you learn something new even as an adult it can shape your worldview and critical thinking skills more than you can imagine - and if it is a bit lightweight dramatically (it's nominations at the Oscar's is kind of silly), it has a soul and a pulse and that moment in the latter part of the film where Mario goes into that room and looks in the cottage at all the stuff there is remarkable.
I didn't find the political material so compelling, in fact I kind of tuned out from all of that. What was charming about the movie is Troisi, who was ill during the making of this and somehow one can tell his passion for the material despite how low key his character seems (Ebert thought Mario and his dad character were supposed to be a word I don't need to reprint here, and then realized he was normal but didn't have anything to talk about, which is kind of funny). It's also how he interacts with Noiriet, who is delightful in the role. The female actress Cucinotta is just Okay, but at least there the writers make a character that isn't simply a foil for the lead male but does have her own thoughts and desires. We see how the poetry opens her up like it does with Mario.
Full disclosure, I'm not entirely sure I would have sought this film out, at least not at this time in my life, if not for my current obsession with trying to see as many films as possible that were once on the IMDb top 250 (I'm a weirdo film Mogwai that way). I am glad I saw Il Postino as it has a good message about the power of teaching and education on a practical level - if you learn something new even as an adult it can shape your worldview and critical thinking skills more than you can imagine - and if it is a bit lightweight dramatically (it's nominations at the Oscar's is kind of silly), it has a soul and a pulse and that moment in the latter part of the film where Mario goes into that room and looks in the cottage at all the stuff there is remarkable.