The Life Ahead

This week on Bad Dads Film Review, we review The Life Ahead, the 2020 Netflix drama directed by Edoardo Ponti and starring Sophia Loren as Madame Rosa.

It is a film about grief, trauma, community, memory, faith, chosen family, and a young boy called Momo who is running out of safe places until he collides with an elderly woman who understands pain better than most.

What we covered

• Monday-recording energy after England’s glorious World Cup defeat of Mexico at the Azteca.
• Recent watches including The Armstrong Lie, Marco Pierre White, Cape Fear, Shot Caller, The Boys, and some explosive dynamite nominations.
• Sophia Loren’s return in a film directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti.
• Madame Rosa: Holocaust survivor, former sex worker, carer for the children of other sex workers, and a woman still carrying deep fear of doctors and institutions.
• Momo’s introduction: stealing Rosa’s candlesticks in the market, trying to stash them badly, and giving possibly the least heartfelt apology ever.
• Dr Cohen’s attempt to place Momo with Rosa, and the negotiation that moves from “absolutely not” to a deal once the money improves.
• Rosa’s household: Babu, Yosef, Lola, and the mix of Jewish, Muslim, Catholic, immigrant, queer and street-level lives around her.
• Lola as a transgender sex worker, parent and former boxer, and the dads’ discussion of how the film includes a lot of identity and community threads.
• Momo being given a job by Mr Hamil, who helps connect him to his Muslim and Senegalese heritage.
• Momo’s parallel life as a young hash dealer, including his quick success, his maths brain, and the fishmonger/drug dealer who tells him never to mess him about.
• The recurring lioness imagery and how it connects to Momo’s mother, protection, Senegal, faith and abandonment.
• Madame Rosa’s decline: the rain episode, the staring spells, dementia-like symptoms, and Momo covering for her to preserve her dignity.
• Rosa’s hidden basement room, her Auschwitz tattoo, her Jewish memories, and the place she has built to feel safe.
• The promise Rosa extracts from Momo: do not let them take me to hospital.
• Momo’s guilt when Rosa is hospitalised while he has been out drinking and dealing.
• The hospital “jailbreak” and the return to the basement, where Momo tries to keep his promise.
• The fake mimosa plant Momo makes for Rosa, and why that gesture becomes one of the film’s most moving moments.
• The ending: Rosa’s death, the funeral, and Momo walking away with Lola and Mr Hamil as a fragile new family unit.
• Sophia Loren’s screen presence at 86: still fiery, still commanding, and especially powerful in the largely silent final section.
• Ibrahima Gueye’s debut as Momo, which the dads thought was hugely impressive.
• The criticism that the film is sometimes too broad, too sweet, and a bit treacly — touching on many serious subjects without fully developing all of them.
• Why the drug storyline, in particular, feels like it could have gone somewhere darker but is resolved quite softly.
• The film’s Puglia setting, warm colours, Italian street life, and very direct community feeling.

Key quotes / moments

• Sidey notes that this is probably his first proper Sophia Loren film.
• Reegs calls the film “a bit treacly, a bit saccharine,” and argues that it throws too much in without examining enough of it in depth.
• Cris argues that the breadth is part of the Italian community texture: different faiths, identities, politics, histories and people all trying to get by.
• Dan responds strongly to the setting, the culture, and the idea of people with difficult lives still trying to do something decent for a child.
• The fake mimosa plant stands out as the small gesture that shows Momo has changed.

Verdict

A strong recommend. The dads acknowledge that The Life Ahead is well-intentioned and sometimes too broad or sentimental, but the performances, warmth, setting and emotional generosity carry it. Sophia Loren is excellent, Ibrahima Gueye is terrific, and the film’s simple message — damaged people can still look after each other — lands.

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