The Life Ahead is a 2020 drama film directed by Edoardo Ponti, from a screenplay by Ponti and Ugo Chiti, based upon the novel The Life Before Us by Romain Gary. It stars Sophia Loren, Ibrahima Gueye and Abril Zamora.
It was released in a limited release on November 6, 2020, followed by digital streaming on Netflix November 13, 2020.
After a 12-year-old Senegalese street kid tries to rob an elderly woman, she reluctantly agrees to take him in. They develop a deep bond and she tries to help him find his way in life, as he learns she is both a Holocaust survivor and an ex-prostitute who now cares for the children of other prostitutes.
Based on Romain Gary’s 1975 book The Life Before Us (already adapted once before, in 1977’s “Madame Rosa,” starring Simone Signoret), “The Life Ahead” is about an elderly Holocaust survivor and ex-prostitute, who takes in the children of local sex workers, either temporarily or permanently. She operates an unofficial juvenile way-station, for children whose mothers have either abandoned them or can’t take care of them. In a society that all too often lets people slip through the cracks, Madame Rosa is the glue of her particular neighborhood. As she nears the end of her life, one child under her care helps her through that difficult process. It is an unlikely friendship, to say the least.
“Sophia Loren inhabits the role of Madame Rosa as if it was written for her. (You can see why Ponti wanted to remake it for her), – said Netflix on the official site. – Bringing to the table her lifetime of experience, talent, and sense of truth, Loren’s Madame Rosa is alternately warm and cranky, imperious and funny, strong and fragile. Madame Rosa has led a hard life, and it shows in her face, her actions, but she is still capable of acts of great generosity. Madame Rosa often goes into fugue states when the trauma of her past gets to be too much. She retreats from the everyday world. In those moments, Loren seems truly broken, staring into space, unreachable. When feeling comes up in her, it’s so sharp and immediate it seems to surprise even her. This is not a character who “indulges” in her emotions. She has survived by not “indulging.”
Into Madame Rosa’s apartment comes Momo, short for Mohamed, and he is played by 14-year-old IbrahimaGueye. Momo is a Muslim from Senegal, although he has no memory of his home country. His father killed his mother when she refused to prostitute herself anymore. Momo is a tough kid with a hard shell, who makes money selling drugs. Madame Rosa is nobody’s fool. She wheedles a local store-owner (played by BabakKarimi, familiar from his work in AsgharFarhadi’s “A Separation” and “The Salesman“), to give Momo a job a couple days a week. Madame Rosa’s best friend is Lola, a sex worker played by wonderful trans actress Abril Zamora. Lola was, as Momo informs us in voiceover, once a middleweight boxing champion, and so everyone “respected her … because if they didn’t she’d bash their faces.” The relationship created by Loren and Zamora is beautiful. You can feel the history between these two women. This small community of people notice Madame Rosa starting to deteriorate. But it is to Momo Madame Rosa turns when she needs it. “You’re a little shit,” she says to him, “but I know you keep your word.”
The career of Loren at this point has spanned 70 years, putting her in very rarified company. Loren hasn’t appeared in anything in over a decade. She remains such a huge star that her appearance in anything is always an event.
The Life Ahead holds a 94% approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 52 reviews, with a weighted average of 7.20/10. The site’s critic’s consensus reads: “A classic example of how a talented actor can elevate somewhat standard material, The Life Ahead proves Sophia Loren’s star power remains absolutely undimmed.”On Metacritic, the film holds a rating of 66 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.
