{"id":9679,"date":"2020-11-11T21:41:50","date_gmt":"2020-11-11T21:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/?p=9679"},"modified":"2020-11-12T21:46:08","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T21:46:08","slug":"the-life-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/the-life-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life Ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sophia Loren is still captivating at 86, playing less than glamorous as a downtrodden retired prostitute in her first feature film in a decade. The relationship between tough, but weary old Madame Rosa and the difficult 12-year-old Muslim immigrant Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) is contentious, complicated and filled with a range of emotion. Loren actually had to be aged up for the role and you will not recognize her. This Cinematic icon plays Madame Rosa, who takes care of sex worker friend\u2019s kids in Italy.<\/p>\n

The whole film is a flashback, opening with Momo being frantically chased by Rosa\u2019s loyal friend down into the basement of an old building. Your Curiosity is peaked from the get go. Post chase, the story goes back 6 months to when Madame Rosa\u2019s doctor shows up on her door with Momo and what he stole from her. The doctor pleads with Madame Rosa to take him in, agreeing to pay her well if she\u2019ll just look after him for awhile. She\u2019s still angry at the boy, using every excuse, but finally relents. The film continues from Momo\u2019s point of view.<\/p>\n

Loren, who is aged up with gray matted hair and dour facial lines in the film, took on the role because it reminded her of her mother. The film is written and directed by Loren\u2019s son, Edoardo Ponti, and co-written by Ugo Chiti. It is actually based on Romain Gary\u2019s The Life Before Us,<\/i> which was made into the Oscar-winning French film, Madame Rosa<\/i>, in 1977. The acting is precise and the subtitles are clear and not distracting at all. This adaptation is set in the Italian coastal city of Bari. Scenes of the city taken overhead via drone give a picture of an inner city where everyone knows everything.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9688″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9684″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9690″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]One of the children Madame Rosa takes care of is Babu, the very cute daughter of flamboyant transgender Lola (Abril Zamora). Lola is a former boxer turned trans-prostitute who seems to be one of the few who can lift Madame Rosa\u2019s spirits. She\u00a0 <\/span>can get the old woman up dancing and laughing in the middle the afternoon. They have a lot of history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Momo suddenly has two other kids to live with, all under Madame Rosa\u2019s rules. Ponti unlocks smidgens of backstory slowly on both Rosa and the defiant Momo who is an orphan from Senegal. He\u2019s got a big chip on his shoulder but Rosa is no easy mark. She demands respect.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ponti shows in scenes with the other young boy in her care that it\u2019s her way or no way. The scene of her teaching the boy Hebrew to prep for a Bar Mitzvah he doesn\u2019t want, but makes it clear, \u201cMy house, my rules.\u201d That\u2019s the first inkling of backstory which is supported later when Momo sees the numbers on Rosa\u2019s arm. She is a Holocaust survivor. He says nothing at first, but she later lets him know without the graphic details, that the Nazis performed experiments on her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wanting to keep Momo away and out of trouble, she gets old friend, Muslim storekeeper, Mr. Hamil (Babak Karimi) to hire Momo as an assistant. Karimi is excellent as the man wary of his new employee. Karimi is excellent being careful, congenial, but very open and honest with this kid. When Momo tries to play matchmaker for Mr. Hamil and Rosa, he explains to Momo that because he is Muslim and Madame Rosa is Jewish, that\u2019s just not going to happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Momo\u2019s an orphan who longs for his Mother\u2019s love. He has dreams that include a lioness who is gentle and playful with him. Ponti\u2019s use of the CG lion seems to symbolize affection and protection. Momo draws pictures of her over and over again for comfort. Even having him repairing the image of a lion on a rug in Mr. Hamil\u2019s store.<\/p>\n

Ibrahima Gueye as Momo is capable of a spectrum of emotion for a young actor. His facial expressions can bubble up rapturous joy or explode into rage in an instant. He\u2019s a natural actor without one awkward moment or movement. As Momo gets a secret life outside of Madame Rosa\u2019s home when he becomes a drug dealer for the local drug lord. He makes so much money for this guy that he\u2019s invited to celebrate and the scene of him dancing for drug boss and honchos shows complete reckless abandon.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9691″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9695″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”9689″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]His euphoria doesn\u2019t last long, as Madame Rosa puts him on the straight and narrow. But she\u2019s mysterious. Momo discovers her hiding place when he was desperately chasing her at the beginning of the film. That scene and that room is pivotal to their bonding. They finally talk more like adults than an adult to a child. Just as the lioness is Momo\u2019s refuge, this is hers. It\u2019s her respite from her own dark memories of the Holocaust. As they get to know each other, she tells him, \u201cWhen you give up on hope, that\u2019s when good things happen.\u201c The close up of them intertwining hands of different colors shows compassion and understanding.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hip hop and upbeat jazz (Basement Jaxx is one of our favorites)pump through Momo\u2019s headphones when he finds success and happiness. But that all changes when Madame Rosa becomes ill and suddenly unresponsive. By this point she has become fond of the curious Momo and they have won each other over. She begs him to keep her out of the hospital, for reasons relating to her past. She makes him care for someone other than himself and he becomes her <\/i>caretaker. It\u2019s a beautiful twist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a very complicated plot line dealing with inner city life, immigration, religious differences, family and loss. The pace of the film is slow but sure, unwrapping the trust they have for each other. Ponti makes every closeup of Loren and Gueye count. By the end, the story becomes highly melodramatic, but you can\u2019t help but feel the bond formed by the unlikely friendship of Madame Rosa and Momo. And even through her unkept, stringy hair and craggy face, Sophia Loren\u2019s inner beauty, once again, shines.<\/p>\n

Netflix \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>1 hour 34 minutes \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0PG-13<\/i><\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=a0ejncDxgCc” el_width=”80″ align=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Sophia Loren is still captivating at 86, playing less than glamorous as a downtrodden retired prostitute in her first feature film in a decade. The relationship between tough, but weary old Madame Rosa and the difficult 12-year-old Muslim immigrant Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) is contentious, complicated and filled with a range of emotion. Loren actually had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9686,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9679"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9700,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9679\/revisions\/9700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}