It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Instant Favorite.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's always worth your while to watch Anna Magnani, but it would have been better if this film would have gone somewhere. Anna plays an ex-prostitute who is now getting a little older and feels that something is missing from her life, so she decides to by a car. She's never driven before and she enlists the help of an old friend to teach her to drive. Some of the scenes are quite funny, and Anna is like an old friend that you want to spend time with, so the movie is enjoyable, but it could have been more. It's obvious that the new car won't be able to fill the emptiness in her life, and at the end when she's disappointed, it's hard to feel all that sorry for her.