THE LIFE AHEAD (2020) FILM REVIEW

***

15, 95 Mins

An Oscar for Loren? I think not.

At 86 years old, Sophia Loren comes out of retirement in ‘The Life Ahead’ (2020) - a hokey, but conventional drama about an ageing Holocaust survivor bonding with a Sengalese boy refugee. Playing a former sex worker, Loren is very good in what is certainly a very good part. But is it worthy of that 2nd Oscar that she’s long been tipped for ever since winning for ‘Two Women’ in 1962?

‘The Life Ahead’ is set in Bari, Italy. This is the home of Madame Rosa (Loren) - an ex-prostitute and eightysomething Holocaust survivor. Traumatized by her experiences and having grown bitter and hostile at the world, she now scrapes a living offering childcare for the children of “working women”.

When Rosa is pickpocketed by a 12 year old Sengalese street kid called Momo (Ibrahima Gueye), she reluctantly agrees to shelter him. Over time, they develop a close bond; paving each other a path in life that is not always easy to predict.

Sophia Loren is a darling of Italian cinema. She won an Oscar for ‘Two Women’ (1962) and was nominated for ‘Marriage Italian Style’ (1965). And she was Charlton Heston’s black-haired bride in ‘El Cid’ (1961).

It’s somewhat unsurprising therefore that her first lead role in over a decade should garner Academy Awards attention. I guess it helps too that ‘The Life Ahead’ is directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. And playing a long-suffering sex worker and Holocaust survivor is exactly the kind of performance that turns heads at the Academy. The Oscars love watching people suffer for a part!

Loren’s Oscar-tipped presence stalks this film like a glamorous ghost. She’s still magnificently beautiful, but it’s sad to see how age has caught up with her and clearly not been kind to her over the years. She looks like a mere shadow of her former self.

As for her performance, I couldn’t help, but feel her role was a little bit underwritten. She merely faded into the background a little too often while the precocious young boy takes centre stage.

Ibrahima Gueye’s performance as 12 year old Momo really is the heart and soul of this film. He’s so lovely and doe-eyed and has some genuinely heart-melting scenes with an Algerian shop owner named Hamil (a lovely performance from Babak Karimi).

In one such scene, Hamil shows Momo his ripped prayer mat with a knitted lion stitched into it. “In the Qur’an, the lion is a symbol of power, patience and faith” he muses. “Faith is like love - every Muslim must remember this” he continues.

Elsewhere, the story is weak hokum. I especially felt the addition of a CGI Lion was a step too far in the realm of credibility. The graphics make ‘The Lion King’ (2019) remake’s weightless creatures look like a work of motion capture, physical brilliance.

What I found most alienating about this film, however, beyond its conventions, cliches and sentimentality, was its soundscape.

When I started watching, I was really perplexed as to why the mouth movements weren’t synchronising with the dialogue and why the Italian characters all had American accents. A quick look at my Netflix info revealed it had been dubbed in English -  a rarity for a foreign language film.

I’ve never been much of a dubbing fan. I always prefer to listen to things in their original language. Perhaps I would have enjoyed ‘The Life Ahead’ more had I watched it in Italian. I don’t see myself watching it again anytime soon, though…Too cliched, too conventional and just really alienating watching it dubbed.

‘The Life Ahead’ is on Netflix now.