Amidst poverty and disease in post-World War II Naples, the Italian Communist Party arranged for the opportunity for poorer children from southern Italy to board a train bound for northern Italy, where more stable host families would temporarily adopt these children, with more resources available to nurture them and give them a better life. The Children’s Train tells a fictional story based on these real-life historical conditions, but is it compelling enough to stream on Netflix?
THE CHILDREN’S TRAIN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Based on the novel by Italian author Viola Adrone, The Children’s Train follows Amerigo (Christian Cervone), a young boy living in poverty with his mother Antonietta (Serena Rossi) in post-war Naples. Antonietta agrees to send Amerigo north through the Italian Communist Party’s “trains of happiness” program, which will set him up with a host family better-equipped to care for a child. Things don’t go quite as planned when Amerigo’s initial family falls through and he’s taken in by single woman Derna (Barbara Ronchi), with her brother’s large family becoming Amrigo’s by extension. Ultimately, Amerigo will feel conflict between the birth mother he misses and the surrogate family who cares for him in her absence.
What Will It Remind You Of?: If you’ve seen an Italian drama where barefooted children scamper through the street, you might feel a twinge of familiarity during this one.
Performance Worth Watching: Barbara Ronchi does the most nuanced and complicated work as a woman who initially has more loyalty to her political party than interest in helping to raise a child, even temporarily.
Sex and Skin: Nope. The story is told almost entirely from a child’s point of view.
Memorable Dialogue: “Come and see the oven!” It’s not a great line on its own, but after Amerigo has been told lies about the host families deciding to eat their new charges, his new family’s enthusiastic entreaty to come see the oven up close results in a funny misunderstanding.
Our Take: There’s a heartbreaking series of contrasts at the heart of The Children’s Train, between a mother’s love for her son and her ability to provide it; between what a woman assumes about her own capacity to care for a child, and what she learns about herself as she does the job; and between a boy’s complicated feelings about both parental figures, and how that’s mixed up with socioeconomic comforts. But while the movie is handsomely assembled, it never feels truly immersive as it addresses those feelings, instead taking on an episodic structure that feels like large chunks of the source material must have been cut for time. Necessitating a fair amount of set-up and running just 96 minutes before credits, the movie itself winds up feeling as divided between its two principal locations as its young hero, but not in a productive way. By the time Amerigo feels fully adjusted to life in northern Italy, that section of the film turns out to be wrapping up, and the movie essentially lays its big emotional climax on the shoulders of a character who hasn’t been on screen for much of the past hour. Without more detailed characterization, the movie, frankly, resembles an odd cross between an interesting anecdote and an extended guilt trip, moreso than the tearjerker it’s aiming for.
Our Call: If you’re looking for the kind of awards-level foreign-language films that often appear in limited release around the end of the year, SKIP IT, though the movie is watchable enough.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
Stream The Children’s Train on Netflix
