You might think I’m only reviewing this film because it got nominated for an Oscar. Not true. I’m only reviewing this film because it stars Sophia Loren, and I’d like the name “Sophia Loren” to show up in my blog at least once. Loren is like Sir Laurence Olivier or Ingrid Bergman, a stylish, timeless, and legendary European talent. I’m not passing up the steelfrogblog chance to invoke films like Arabesque or La Ciociara because, lemme tell ya, you don’t think much about classic Italian cinema during a screening of Big Momma’s House 3.
Momo (Ibrahima Gueye –that is quite a mouthful for a kid who can be reduced to “Momo”) is a grifter-in-training. At age ten, the orphan boy is already a successful thief and drug dealer. Oh if his Senegalese dad could only see Momo now … how proud he’d be! The story begins with Momo stealing from the wrong old woman. Wrong because he didn’t get away with his heist of Torah artifacts? Oh, no. Not at all. Momo got away clean and then some. It was the wrong move because he couldn’t fence the goods and it turns out this was the final straw for foster dad.
And, get this, foster dad actually knew the victim, Holocaust-survivor-turned-street-walker-turned-surrogate-child-raiser, Madame Rosa (Loren). Well gosh, isn’t that a convenience? At the same time Dr. Coen (Renato Carpentieri) can both force Momo to apologize and also bargain for Rosa’s services as a mother. Can the street rat and the colorful old lady form a bonding relationship that starts very slowly but ends in tears? Of course they can. A movie is a movie, even in Italy.
I gotta say, the bonding part took a little longer than I’d hoped. Momo is a tad too hardened and mistrusting. I’m sure that he comes by it honestly (well, honestly from his dishonesty) … but here’s the thing –Momo is a little jerk. He steals, he mouths off, he deals drugs … we can forgive him all this. He is, after all, only ten and an orphan. If he’s rough around the edges, it is to be expected. Similarly, Madame Rosa is a Holocaust survivor and a serial child rearer; she’s probably seen it all, including Momo. She is the inspiration for terms like “battle axe.” The two are stubborn; the pushback is continuous. The film only allows us to view their give-and-take as positive once Rosa’s health issues arise.
The key development in the film for me was the interaction between Momo and a fellow
abandonee, Iosef (Iosif Diego Pirvu). Through these two, it’s a little easier to see Momo’s painful and aggravatingly slow development. The question is, would you bank a film on the relationship between a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old? No, I wouldn’t either. Besides, The Life Ahead booked Sophia Loren! You gotta give her the props regardless of how the film ought to look.
If you wait long enough, The Life Ahead is worth seeing. But, seriously, film, why did you make us wait? Momo is ten, he’s a orphan, he’s underfed and vulnerable. All he wants out of life is to own a secondhand bicycle. All of that is adorable; it’s protagonist burrito filling … so why the slosloMomo in getting to the ice breakers? Did you need to fight so hard to make us dislike Momo? There’s a difference between conflict and “shooting yourself in the foot.” We didn’t need Life Ahead to be a Hallmark film, but you know what? This Italian film could have used a little Hallmark, capisce?
A youngster on thievery is hell-bent
When he’s forced to live with a crone of resent
If a Holocaust Jew
Doesn’t think much of you
Perhaps consider some self-improvement
Rated PG-13, 94 Minutes
Director: Edoardo Ponti
Writer: Ugo Chiti
Genre: Oliver!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: People who want to give kids a chance
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who don’t even want to give street walkers a chance
