Instruct: Classify a given review as either positive or negative.
Query: A Brief Vacation

Italian director Vittorio De Sica returns to my newsletter. THE BICYCLE THIEF, AFTER THE FOX, and this. This one's 1973, Italian with English subtitles, in color. The premise is "sickness is the vacation of the poor." Clara has a lousy husband and a lousy job, but some lung damage sends her to the sanatorium in the mountains. I like the premise. I grew up in the "work til you drop" culture, and in fact I'm still fighting to reprogram myself.I really wanted to like this movie, as a De Sica fan, but it was boring. The acting was surprisingly bad, and the opening 50 minutes in the factory were so cliche. I waited for the part in the hospital, hoping it was "the good part." Nah, just some eccentrics and a romantic interest. A few good performances, largely wasted. I've seen movies excel with less, but this one just didn't pull it off. But on the plus side, the scenery was great.