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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