The Life Ahead

While scanning films available on Netflix, I wasn't expecting to find a brand-new tearjerker starring the legendary Sophia Loren. Lucky me.

The Life Ahead is a remake of Academy Award Best Foreign Film-winner Madame Rosa (French, 1979). This time the action takes place in a seaside town of Italy with Loren as Rosa, an Auschwitz survivor and retired prostitute who reluctantly takes in a 12-year old street kid after he snatches her purse.

In her first film in more than ten years, Loren, 86, offers her seasoned charisma to an unglamorous role. She has her son to thank for casting her as such a grounded character. He directed this film.

The story is a familiar, predictable one as you might have already guessed, but I enjoyed the comforting rhythm of an old-fashioned film with a picturesque setting and bona fide movie star. The bond that grows between Rosa and the boy is the stuff grand movies are made of.

In a nutshell: A melodrama set in the sunset of Italy that borders on trite, but Sophia Loren.

Award potential: Sophia Loren has but a possible chance at a Best Actress nomination but it's a long shot. Unlike Oscars-favorite Diane Warren who wrote a song for it, Io Si (Seen). Expect Warren's 12th nomination come March. The film did not make the shortlist of 12 films eligible for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Ten Buck Review: Worth ten bucks.