Movie Review - The Life Ahead

Sophia Loren was the first actor to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance, which she did at the 34th Academy Awards for her role in the Italian film, Two Women (1961). It was a World War II drama about the horrors that a mother and child experience on their own in that conflict. Since then, Loren has been revered as a Hollywood icon. As a octogenarian, she's still revered and understandably so. She's a phenomenal actress. She doesn't do much acting anymore, but she appears here because this film is directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti doing his third feature. Ponti is adapting the 1975 novel, The Life Before Us by Romain Gary, a Russian Jew who became a French citizen and fought honorably in World War II and then went on to become a popular and prolific writer in France. Gary's book has already been adapted three previous times: a film, a TV program and a stage play. I haven't seen those other adaptations, but one has to question why Ponti felt the need to do another adaptation or what distinguishes this as to justify its existence, beyond the book probably being a favorite of his.

First of all, I can't even tell what time period this film is set. Initially, I thought the film was taking place in the present. The book probably was set in the present of when it was published, which was 1975. This would make sense because the book is about a female, Holocaust survivor named Madame Rosa, which would mean that Rosa is considered old or elderly 30 years away from the Holocaust. If we are to believe that this film is set in the present, that of 2020, it would mean that Rosa is now 70 years away from surviving the Holocaust. This isn't to deny that there are still Holocaust survivors who are still alive as septuagenarians, octogenarians and older, but it just makes the premise here, stretch a little credulity.

Ibrahima Gueye makes his feature debut as Mohamed aka Momo, a 12-year-old boy from Senegal. Somehow, his parents are absent or gone. He's described as an orphan, which is a bit of a deviation from the book, and instead Momo has an old, Jewish doctor named Dr. Coen as his guardian. Momo lives with Dr. Coen in Rome, Italy. It doesn't seem as if things are going well, as Momo goes about the streets and robs people. He'll take items to a local criminal or chop shop for money. When Momo robs Rosa of her candlesticks, he isn't able to sell them to the criminal. Momo tries to hide the candlesticks in Coen's house, but Coen discovers them and learns what Momo has done.

Renato Carpentieri plays Dr. Coen and Coen returns the stolen goods to Rosa. She was physically knocked down when Momo stole from her, but, to add insult to injury, Coen asks Rosa if she would allow Momo to live with her. He's basically passing off his responsibility. He says he's too old to take care of this prepubescent boy, but Rosa is just as old, if not older than him. Coen says that he hasn't been able to find anybody to adopt Momo, but he's not asking Rosa to adopt him. He's basically asking her to foster the boy, but he's paying her to do so. He even agrees to pay her 750 Euros, which is almost 900 American dollars. The idea that he couldn't find a single family in all of Rome, African in origin or otherwise, that couldn't foster this boy for nearly 900 dollars again strains credulity.

Abril Zamora plays Lola, a transgender woman who lives in the same building as Rosa. Lola is friends with Rosa, as both are former prostitutes. It's hinted that Lola was also a former boxing champion, probably before she transitioned. She asks Rosa to be her babysitter. Lola has a child who seems to be only a toddler, no older than 5. The fact that Rosa is doing this would seem that she's capable of caring for children, even at her age. Lola's child is only with Rosa during the day while Lola works, so Lola's baby isn't Rosa's responsibility day in and day out.

Iosif Diego Pirvu plays Iosif, another prepubescent boy around 11 or 12 who is Rosa's responsibility, at least temporarily. Iosif's mother was possibly a prostitute who left Iosif in Rosa's care. The fact that Iosif is under Rosa's care is even more of an argument for her to be able to care for Momo. Yet, Iosif isn't as much of a problem child. Iosif is very well behaved. He doesn't require the kind of attention that Momo might. That doesn't stop Rosa from showing Iosif attention by helping him learn Hebrew for example, which might be beyond her call of duty. If that's what the film was about, that might be one thing. Yet, the attention Rosa shows to Momo isn't what this film is about.

Even though it's contentious at first, Momo starts to bond with Iosif. In order to dissuade him from criminal activity, Momo is given a job at a store, run by Mr. Hamil, played by Babak Karimi (The Salesman and The Past). Both Iosif and Hamil do more and give more attention to Momo than Rosa does. What happens instead is that Rosa starts to become sick. Her death is imminent, so Momo is the one who actually has to give attention and in fact be the caregiver for Rosa, instead of it being the other way around.

I get that the film is meant to be about the connection of this boy who lost his family recently and this older woman who also lost her family decades prior. It's also meant to be about the two taking care of each other. Unfortunately, the film never makes that connection a fully realized thing. For a chunk of this film, it's about Momo becoming a drug dealer. It's a likely and more credible story line, but it's not clear what Momo is doing it for or what his goal is for the most part. It just felt like I never knew what was happening in Momo's head. There's an idea involving Momo and a lioness, an actual female lion, that I never understood either.

La Vita Davonti a Sé.

Rated PG-13 for drug material involving minors, some sexual material and language.

Running Time: 1 hr. and 35 mins.

Available on Netflix.