Beautiful Italian psychological family drama. This intelligent and powerful film is superbly written, directed and acted. High quality piece of cinematography.

One of his last films, the great Comencini 's "bueno natale ,bueno anno " dealt with old people rejected by their sons and daughters .

"La Tenerezza" inverses the roles : it's a grumpy old man who cannot stand his offspring anymore and severs links with them ; he meets a couple with children and one may think he's starting over and has found himself a new family ,but it's more complex than that ; in fact the father,Fabio ,is a neurotic,who cannot relate to his children ,like him;his behavior becomes more and more worrying : the way he treats the unfortunate street peddler comes aside as a shock .Too bad the character is not more developed for he 's far more interesting than that of Lorenzo's daughter :all that concerns the biological children is conventional ,melodramatic ; the first scene which echo the last one (the interpret job) is a cliché to end all the clichés.

But the real meat of the movie lies in Lorenzo's relationship with his new "family" ; he makes their tragedy his and his vision of Michela who would have survived the horror and tells him she's got her own family gives the movie a fantasy side. Besides , whereas one does not feel very much for his own children's distress, one cannot prevent oneself from admiring this crooked former lawyer ,some kind of modern Robin Hood.