Laboured but in the spirit of love

The Life Ahead Cast: Sophia Loren, Ibrahima Gueye Director: Edoardo Ponti Duration: 1 h 34 m Available: Netflix

If you crave predictability in these crazy times, you may enjoy The Life Ahead, a heartstring-tugging drama from Italy that pulls no punches and offers few surprises.

Perhaps the biggest shock is the opening credit for Sophia Loren.

The 86-year-old hasn't acted in a feature in a decade, although if anyone can drag an aging superstar out of retirement it's director and co-writer Edoardo Ponti.

All he had to do was yell “Mamma! Mamma!” until she gave in.

In The Life Ahead, she plays Rosa, an elderly Holocaust survivor who makes ends meet by looking after semi-abandoned kids.

One day her doctor comes calling with a boy he's been looking after, presumably since one of those refugee shipwrecks that are terrifyingly common off the coast of Italy.

Twelve-year-old Momo (Ibrahima Gueye) is proving to be a handful, hanging out with drug dealers and, in the opening scene, stealing a pair of silver candlesticks from Rosa.

This nod to Les Misérables would be stronger if Ponti had trusted us to get it and didn't provide a callback and brief discussion of the novel later in the film.

Rosa reluctantly accepts Momo (and the doctor's offer of 750 euros a month) and, wouldn't you know it, these two people from different backgrounds, countries and generations eventually realize they have a few things in common, and start to get along.

Though not before some major fights and revelations — among other things, Momo doesn't understand what that tattoo on Rosa's arm is for, and an explanation by another of her wards, that she's a secret agent, doesn't enlighten him.

The Life Ahead is based on Romain Gary's 1975 novel, and is also a remake of the 1977 French adaptation, which won the best foreign-language Oscar that year.

If The Life Ahead has similar aspirations it's likely to be disappointed, although the performances are strong.

It's lovely to see Loren on the screen again (even the small Netflix screen), and newcomer Gueye ably holds his own, although I found his most affecting scenes were when he was on his own, dancing to music or riding his bike through the streets, happy and wild and free.

It's in these moments that the film itself loses its self-consciousness.

For too much of the time, The Life Ahead seems intent on making sure we know what's going on and where the story is headed. In reality, life ahead is seldom so clear-cut. Π•½