Even before you've probed into Ricci, the filmmaker makes sure you are rooting for him as soon as you hear him worrying about his pawned bicycle. You see his wise young son and the tiny baby and them having to do without bedsheets so that he can get the bicycle and start working. Future looks good for him until you remember the title of the film. Going by contemporary pace, the action is bound to go slow, but you are there with Bruno and Antonio every step of the fatiguing way as they look for the precious bicycle. Bruno's joy at the stretch of the mozzarella cheese makes you smile too and so does Maria's affectionate appraisal of Antonio when he dons his uniform the first morning of the work. I'll not dare to say that I know much about filmmaking, but what i watched was simple, real, heartfelt, and what if it is set in post-second world war Italy? You can still relate to it. You want Ricci to find the bicycle and be able to live the life he deserves to, but Italian neorealist filmmaker Vittorio de Sica will not give you the ending you wish for, because life is not like that, is it? You too find something pricking at your eyelashes when you see father and son walking away, ashamed, humiliated, despairing but still bound to live on.